Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Chi
by beaniehigurashi
Summary: Aya Catina is a new student in Hinamizawa. As she learns more about the legends and mysteries that surround the village, she starts getting the feeling that her new friends can't be trusted and that she's in danger no matter where she is. Can she find out the truth before her life turns bloody? Rated M for later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

"Why don't you introduce yourself to the class?" my new teacher, Ms. Chie, suggests. I walk away from the classroom's doorway and stand in front of the class. I slightly blush, because everyone's staring at me. I'm a very shy person, which is why I blush a lot. At my old school, which was in Ibaraki, I earned the nickname, Blushy, because I'd blush all the time, whether it was because I was talking to someone or someone was talking to me. I usually blush a dark red when I'm standing in front of a lot of people, like I am now. Although, there isn't very many students in this class as there were in my class at my old school.

I look down at the floor and smile weakly. "I-I'm Catina Aya. I-I moved here from Ibaraki about a week ago, and... I'm hoping I'll make some new friends." I look up and see that almost everyone is giving me friendly smiles, making me feel a little warm inside. The teacher comes and stands next to me. "You can sit next to Maebara-san if you'd like," she says, pointing to the seat that's next to a brown-haired boy. He seems to be a lot older than me, probably about 15 or 16 years old. I'm only 10. I wish Ms. Chie had let me sit next to someone my own age, but she's the teacher, and I can't tell her what to do. So, instead of complaining, I walk over to where the boy is and sit down next to him. He turns his head and looks at me. At first, I think he's going to make fun of me for being younger than him, but, instead, he holds out his hand and, happily, says, "Hiya, I'm Keiichi Maebara! It's nice to meet you."

I slowly shake hands with him. His hand, which is very warm, almost covers my whole hand, since I have really small hands for someone my age. To tell the truth, all of me is small for my age. I could most likely pretend I was an 8 year old without having people think differently.

The girl behind me, who has shoulder-length orange hair, suddenly yells out, "Awww! Aya-chan is SO cute! I'm going to take her home!"

Then, in the blink of an eye, I'm being smothered my the girl, who's hugging me as tight as she can.

I heard the Keiichi guy chuckle a little. "Oh, Rena-chan, you know you can't take home the née student, especially not on her first day at school."

The girl next to the girl named Rena smirked. "Ahahaha! Keiichi's right, which, by the way, is new." The first thing I noticed about her was her light green hair, which was pulled back into a high ponytail. Another noticeable thing about her was her large chest. I hope I don't have a chest that big when I grow up. I actually wouldn't mind if I was flat-chested, like I am right now, when I'm a teenager.

"Aya-chan, isn't it?" someone asks. I turn my attention to a small girl with short blond hair and a black headband.

I blush and nod my head. "Y-Yeah," I reply nervously. I'm not used to so many different people talking to me. At my old school, people didn't talk to me that often. There were only a couple people that'd actually have conversations with me and would sit with me during lunchtime.

The young girl smiled, revealing a small fang tooth. "I'm Hojo Satoko," she says. She points to a girl with long blue hair that's standing a little bit behind her. "That's my best friend, Furude Rika. She's the village's shrine maiden."

I look at the blue-haired girl, my eyes wide. I can't believe the shrine maiden for this village is so young. I can tell she and her friend are about my age, but she still seems kind of young to be a miko. I'm guessing she's the one who's in charge of the shrine me and my family had passed on our way to put new house. I find it hard to believe that she cleaned that whole thing by herself, but I can tell that she's truly the miko of the village. It'd be kind of dumb to lie about something like that.

Out of nowhere, a girl that looked exactly like the green-haired girl that's sitting behind Keiichi, despite her having her hair down and wearing a much different outfit, came up to me. I'm surprised I didn't notice that there were two green-haired girls in this class while I was standing in front of everyone. Then again, I did spend most of my time up there looking down at the ground, so I guess I shouldn't be so shocked.

"Hey, new girl!" she exclaims, smiling. "I see you have met the group already!"

I wonder what she means by "the group". Are all of these people friends or something? I mean, it wouldn't be a surprise if they sometimes hung out with each other, since there's not many people in their grade, or in the class in general. But are they all best friends?

"Well, in case you didn't know, I'm Sonozaki Shion and this is my twin sister, Sonozaki Mion," says the girl with the loose green hair. Wow, they're the first pair of twins I've ever met.

They both have green hair, a friendly grin, large chests, and eyes that tells others that they're sometimes, maybe even a lot of times, mischievous.

"Hey, do you want to join our club?" Mion asks.

"What club?"

So then I'm informed about this special club that everyone I have met goes to after school is over. You get to play lots of different games. Although, if you lose, the winner chooses a punishment for you. Keiichi says that, usually, punishments consist of wearing funny and weird outfits around town. I notice that he says that in a grim way, which must mean that he's usually the one who's forced to dress up. The dress up items include cat ears, bunny ears, weird hats, bikinis, costumes, school swimsuits, and, Mion's personal favorite, maid outfits, along with a bunch of other things. I imagine Keiichi in a maid outfit and slightly giggle at the image. I find it funny that he sometimes has to wear girl clothes, although I feel bad for him, too, because he has to wear those things around town, where there are other people who'll see him.

When Mion and Keiichi are done explaining to me about the club, I quickly agree that I'll stay after school for it. After that, Ms. Chie announces that it's lunchtime. Mion invites me to sit with her and the others. I scoot my desk over to the others. Then I get out my bento box, which is full of a bunch of different delicious foods that my mom had made. She's very good at cooking. My dad cooks, too, but his meals aren't as good as my mom's. To tell the truth, this one time, he had actually agreed that my mom's cooking is better than his.

"Wow, that looks tasty!" Rena, who's sitting next to me, exclaims, eyeing the food that's in my bento box.

"T-Thank you," I reply. I really wish I wasn't so shy. I hate it when I stutter. It makes me feel weak and pathetic.

Satoko, who's sitting right across from me, and Rika, who's sitting beside her, both look at my food with curiosity. I see that Mion, who's sitting on the other side of me, and Shion, who's sitting across from her, are also looking at my food. Keiichi, who's sitting at the end, with his desk turned a different way so that he can see all of us, gives a small laugh.

"Wow, it actually looks tastier than the food Rena-chan brings for lunch," he says. Then he looks at Rena and says, "No offense or anything."

I look at Rena's food and see that it, too, looks very tasty. It's organized really well, and it's also very colorful.

"Did you make all if this yourself?" I ask, pointing to her food with my chopsticks.

She nods cheerfully. "Yeah!"

"She and Satoko-chan are the best cooks in this group," Rika chimes in. Satoko's face turns a little red from the complement.

Shion pats Satoko's head and grins. "Alright, Satoko, do you know what time it is?" she asks.

Satoko raises an eyebrow in confusion and shakes her head.

Shion puts a small container of orange stuff intoning table and removes the lid. "It's pumpkin time!" she says gleefully.

Satoko groans while Rika pats her on the back, saying, "There, there."

Mion laughs while Shion feeds the pumpkin to Satoko, who obviously hates pumpkin. Rena swoons over the table at Satoko with a big smile on her face.

"Awww! Satoko-chan looks so cute right now! I'm going to take her home!"

Before she gets the chance to even touch Satoko, her wrist is grabbed by Rika, who pulls her back, trying to calm her down. I'm told that, whenever Rena goes into what Mion and the others call her "cute mode", which is activated when she sees something cute, she'll go all crazy and try to take the item home.

During the rest of lunch, Mion talked about a lot of the past club activities. I had noticed that Keiichi was the one who lost most of them, which confirms my earlier thought about him having to wear lots of punishment game outfits around town.

After lunch, we move our desks back to the way they were before. Then we return to our studies. While I'm working on the math worksheet that Ms. Chie had assigned for the "middle-age" group, I, out of nowhere, got the feeling that someone was watching me. I look over at Satoko and Rika, and see that Rika's staring at me with intense eyes. When she sees that I'm looking back at her, she lowers her head and continues working.

After school, while most of the students are leaving, I walk up to Rika, who's talking with Satoko. Satoko sees me and nods her head in my direction, causing Rika to turn around and greet me with a smile. "Hello, Aya-chan!" she says.

At first, when the group started calling me by my first name, I was surprised, because, usually, you only call friends or relatives by their first names, and today's the first day I've ever met them. But now I'm not surprised anymore, because I have gotten used to it.

"Um... I was wondering... about why you were staring at me during class..." I say. I may be used to them calling me by my first name, but I'm still not used to talking and be friends with so many people.

Rika giggles. "Oh, sorry about that. I was just seeing how you were doing. After all, it is your first day here. I want to make sure you felt comfortable around everyone."

Wow, I can't believe it. Someone actually cares about how I feel. Yes, my parents care about me (sometimes, too much), but no one, besides the people I talked with in the classroom or at lunch, at school cared much about me. I was an outsider, like the other guys I had hung out with, which is why I didn't fit into a lot of the groups that were there at school, such as the geeks or the popular guys, along with many more.

I guess I really am friends with these guys...

"T-Thank you for that," I reply.

Rika nods before walking over to the group of desks with Satoko. Over there, Mion was getting the game that we were going to play today ready. Apparently, today, we're going to play something easy: Go Fish. I have played that game since I was about 5 years old. It used to be a very fun game, until I had started getting bored with it. I'm hoping that, because we're playing it during an after school club that involved punishment games, it won't be as boring as it usually is when I play it with other people.

We all sat at the group of desks that were across from each other, except for one that was at the end and was turned towards the other desks. We all sat where we had sat during lunchtime, with Keiichi sitting at the end desk.

Mion dealt the all of the cards, each of us getting 7. I look at my deck whenever she finishes. I have a 1, a 2, a 5, another 5, an 8, a Jack, and a King. I put down the two 5s, while Mion puts down two 8s and two Kings. No one else seems to have any matches, so Mion goes ahead and asks Rena if she has any 10s, to which Rena says yes. Keiichi asks me if I have any 8s. I hand him my 8 card. Shion asks Mion if she has any 3s. Mion shakes her head no. Satoko asks Rika if she has any 1s. Apparently, Rika does, because she hands Satoko a card. Rika asks Keiichi if he has any Queens, and then Keiichi grumbles to himself before handing her a card. Rena asks me if I have any 1s. I give her the card. I ask Mion if she has any Jacks. I know she does, because I had accidentally seen her cards a little earlier, although the only card she has that I also have is the Jack. She hands me over the Jack, and then I put the pair down onto the pile of matching cards.

After a while, Mion ends up losing all of her cards first, Rena second, Satoko third, Shion fourth, and Rika fifth. Right now, Keiichi and I are tied. I still have the 2 I had gotten at the beginning of the game, along with a four. Keiichi has a 7 and a 9. Everyone who has already matched all if their cards looks at us, watching to see who'll win and who'll lose. I'm pretty sure I'm going to lose, because I think Keiichi has had more practice at this game than I have. I know this game is mostly based on chance, but I remember hearing someone say that the group members had recognized all the cards by their bends and tears, unlike me. That memorization of the cards gives them an advantage at winning, which is most likely why I'll lose. Keiichi has been here for over a year, which means that he has had a lot of time to memorize the cards. This is my first day, so, of course, I'm not going to know which card is which.

I pick up the top card from the deck after getting a "go fish" from asking about a 4. The top card was a 2. I put down my new pair. I notice that Keiichi looks very uneasy. I bet he thinks he's going to lose.

He asks me if I have a 7 and I say no. He draws the top card from the deck. He sighs when he sees it. I'm guessing that he's frustrated that he didn't get a pair.

"Do you have any 4s?" I ask.

Keiichi shakes his head. I pick up the top card. It's a 10.

"Do you have any 10s?" he asks.

I nod and hand him the card. He cracks a small grin before frowning again. He must be mad about how I still have less cards than him.

"Do you have any 4s?"

He shakes his head. "Go fish."

I pick up the top card. When I saw what it was, I freeze. It was a 4. I had won the game. Mion looks over my shoulder at the card.

"Looks like we have a winner!" she exclaims happily. She drapes her arm around my shoulder and squeezes me a little. "Who knew you were so good at games?"

Not me, I'd like to say, but, instead, I keep my mouth shut.

Mion forced Keiichi to wear a girl's school swimsuit, a pink feathery boa, knee-high, high heel black boots, and a fake, golden crown. He angrily crossed his arms over his chest as we_ Rena, Mion, Shion, Keiichi, and I_ walked through town. I was able to keep myself from laughing at Keiichi. It truly was kind of pitiful, but, even so, it was still very funny.

After Keiichi and I had dropped off Mion, Shion, and, a little later on, Rena, we arrive at Keiichi's house. I can smell something coming from his house. It smells like a freshly-made home-cooked meal. The smell wafers in the air, lacing itself all around me, up and down my arms and legs.

"Well, I'll see you later!" Keiichi calls out to me as he heads inside. I wave good-bye to him before heading home. As I'm walking down pebble path that leads to the front door, I keep getting this feeling that someone's walking behind me.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day was Sunday, which means there's no school. I got a call early this morning from Mion, who had invited me to hang out with her and the others. I had agreed, which is why I'm standing in front of my house right now, waiting for them to show up. When they arrived, the first thing Mion did was laugh at me. At first, I thought I there was food on me or something from breakfast this morning. But then Mion pointed at my outfit.

"You're not going to wear that on your day off, are you?"

She was talking about my school uniform, which consists of a white-collared t-shirt, a red ribbon, a black pleated skirt, white knee socks that has a red stripe right near the top, and black shoes. I had been so tired yesterday that I had went to bed without changing into my pajamas. I'm not sure why I was so tired. I guess I was just so happy that I had made some new friends on my first day at school yesterday. So happy that all of my energy had been drained while I was hanging out with the others.

Mion snaps her fingers in front of my face, bringing me back to reality. "Do you want to go change real quick?" she asks me. I nod and then quickly run back into my house. I rummage through my drawers and pull out a red dress that has thin straps. I take off my school clothes and then put the dress on. On my way out the front door, I slip on some silver sandals.

"Alright, let's go!" Mion exclaims. We start walking down the long pathway that'll lead us to the village. I'd ask Mion what we're going to be doing, but, obviously, that's supposed to be a surprise. I wonder if we're going to be playing some kind if cool game with each other. Mion did say yesterday, while Keiichi was getting dressed into his punishment outfit, that they_ her and the other club members_ sometimes have their club activities outside of school. She told me they had once played a game with a bunch of other kids in a toy store in Okinomiya.

"Hey, have you already heard of the Watanagashi Festival?" Mion suddenly asks me. I shake my head. I knew that, in some cities and towns of Japan, people had festivals to celebrate different kinds of things, but I didn't know that any festivals were held here in Hinamizawa.

Mion starts explaining to me all about the festival. Apparently, the festival is held for people to wash away their sins. Mion says that people do that by placing cotton in the water and letting it_ along with their sins_ drift away. Mion also tells me about all the fun activities you can do before the festival actually starts. The festival is where they hold the biggest club activities. Then, after that, they'd watch Rika perform her dance. Later, they'd place pieces of cotton into the river. The river's currents would pull the cotton down the river and then into the ocean.

To tell the truth, the festival sounds very fun, although there's still a lot I'm confused about, such as who the people are washing away their sins for, and why they use cotton for the ceremony. I guess I could ask Rika or Mion that later today, since they'd most likely know more about this village than others.

"We're here!" Mion shouts happily. Rena swoons next to her as she takes in the scene in front of her and the others. I look at the building in front of us and I'm able to tell that it's a toy store. The front of the building has large windows, showing all of the rows of toys inside. It has a light yellow roof, two corridors in the front, and, across the street, there's a giant tree. We walk through the double doors and into the store. I notice there are not a lot of people here, which, to me, is odd, since it seems like it'd be a popular place for people to go to, like the nearby café, Angel Mort.

The next thing I know, a man I don't recognize is walking up to us with a large smile plastered on his face. He has round brown-rimmed glasses, brown hair that's sticking up a little because of his wide blue headband, a small beard, and is wearing light blue shirt, along with a white unzipped jacket. Much to my surprise, Mion and Shion give the stranger a big hug. I tug the sleeve of Mion's white dress. "Who's that guy?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

Rena grins. "That's Yoshirou, Mion and Shion's uncle. He owns this place. Sometimes, Mion works here to help him out with some things."

No wonder the two girls were hugging that man. He was a family relative. I find it kind of surprising that this store is owned by him. Then again, he's a part of the Sonozaki family, and the Sonozaki family is very rich and powerful. I wonder if the Sonozaki family also owns Angel Mort.

"Alright, so are you guys ready for the big game today?" the uncle, Yoshirou, asks us. Everyone except for me nods. I don't know what big game he's talking about.

Obviously, Satoko and Rika noticed this, because, a second later, they're telling me how we're playing a club activity with a bunch of other kids. The game we'll be playing is a card game called Karuta. In Karuta, there are a bunch of cards spread out all over the table. A person tells you to find a certain card. You have to try to find and take it before anyone else can. This process repeats over and over again until there are no more cards left. The person with the most cards at the end of the game is the winner. By the time they were done explaining, all of the other kids were here.

There were 8 other kids, 4 of each gender. Two of the girls were from their class, both in the same grade as Satoko, Rika, and I. One of them had brown hair that was pulled up into a high ponytail and was wearing a pink short sleeved dress that had a white collar, while the other one, who was slightly shorter, had short black hair that was mostly down but had a little ponytail on the side that was tied up with a magenta-colored hairbow, along with a teal-colored tank top over a white t-shirt, and an orange skirt. Their names were Fi and Mo.

The other two girls were in middle school, older than Satoko, Rika, and I, but younger than Rena, Mion, Shion, and Keiichi. They were both twins, like Mion and Shion. One of them, Hima, had her orange hair in a low ponytail, while the other, Hina, had her hair in a high ponytail. They both wore green t-shirts and camouflage capris. I heard that they go to a school in Ibaraki.

Two of the boys were also in our class. Their names are Tomita and Okamura and they're in my grade. The last two boys also went to a school in Ibaraki and were a little older than the twins. The shorter-looking one, who has light brown hair, is Leo, and the taller one, who has black hair, is Tiv.

Everyone took a seat at the long table that was in one of the far-back corners of the store. Youshiro sat at the seat that's at the end. Shion sat in the seat that was on his right, while Mion sat next to her, Keiichi next to Mion, Rena next to Keiichi, Satoko next to Rena, Rika next to Satoko, and me next to Rika. Shion sat across from Hina, Mion from Hima, Tiv from Keiichi, Leo from Rena, Tomita from Satoko, Okamura from Rika, and Fi from me. Mo sat in the chair that's on the other end. Yoshirou laid the all of the cards down onto the table. When he finishes, he grins and yells, "Let the game begin!"

**A/N: **The way I described the store is actually how it looks. I looked up pics of it and then used those pics to describe the place. Also, the 2 girls that I named Fi and Mo are from the anime. They appear in the last episode of Tsumihoroboshi-hen. They're the ones who run out into the hallway, where Rena is waiting with her cleaver. The girl in the pink dress is the girl Rena holds captive. The only thing I own from them is their names. Also, Tomita and Okamura are also from the anime. They appear in the first episode of Watanagashi-hen. Last, Karuta is a real game, and it's also played in the first episode of Watanagashi-hen.


	3. Chapter 3

"Let the game begin!"

Yoshirou grins at all of us as he holds a card in his hand. "Find the card with a sleeping cat on it!" he exclaims. Everyone starts looking everywhere at all of the cards, which are turned over so you can't see the front, on the table for the card Yoshirou had just called for, all the while making sure no one else finds it first. I'm hoping the sleeping cat card isn't somewhere over at the other end of the table, because, if it is, I won't be able to get it.

I'm thinking that I'll be laughed at if I get last place at this game, which is why I don't want to lose. Although, these guys have probably played this before, giving them an advantage over me, since this is the first time I've ever played this game. Closing my eyes, I reach out for a random card. I flip the card over in my hand and then open my eyes. Much to my surprise, the card I chose was the one with the sleeping cat on the front.

"Aya-chan wins this round!" Yoshirou yells, smiling. I guess someone had told him my name, because I know I never did.

I smile weakly as everyone stares at me. The twins, Hima and Hina, glare at me. Obviously, they hate it when they lose. I feel my face heating up. I hate it when I blush at the weirdest of times. My blush deepens in color when I see Mion giving me a thumbs up. Satoko smiles at me, giving me a full view of her little fang tooth. Rika gives me a big grin and a pat on the back. I'm pretty sure my face is the color of a tomato right now.

"Alright, next card: a rabbit eating a carrot!"

I begin searching for the card. Everyone else does, too. I quickly skim over all of the cards on my end of the table. Unfortunately, I can't find the rabbit card. Satoko and Rika have looks of frustration on their faces, which must mean that they can't find the card, either. The card that we're looking for must be at Mion's end of the table. I look at her and immediately see the determination in her eyes. I wish I was as bold as she was. Maybe then I wouldn't constantly blush all the time. Maybe then I'd be able to do things that require courage.

Back at my old school, there was this girl that'd do _anything_. This one time, she was dared to pull this one prank on the strictest teacher at our school. The prank was to put worms in the teacher's cup of tea. She went through with it and, luckily, never got caught. I admit that seeing the teacher freak out was funny, but I wish the girl was dared to do something else, because I think it's possible that the teacher could've gotten sick from drinking worm-filled tea. It's a good thing she didn't, though.

Yesterday, at school, I was informed that Satoko was a master at traps. I know traps aren't _exactly_ the same thing as pranks, but they _do_ have a lot of similarities with each other. A lot of Satoko's traps are used on Keiichi. I was happy to learn that her traps aren't ever dangerous. I also learned that, every now and then, Rika helps Satoko set up her traps. Since they're one of first people to arrive at school in the mornings, they have a lot of time to set things up before Rena, Mion, Shion, and Keiichi get there. Yesterday, I had arrived later than I will from now on, because it was my first day of school. My mom told me that I'll be going to school earlier from now on, so, maybe, I'll be able to see Satoko, and, possibly, Rika setting up a trap.

"Mion-san wins this round!" Yoshirou suddenly yells, scaring me a little.

I see Mion happily holding the card with the rabbit on it. Rena's desperately trying to snatch the card out of Mion's hand, although it seems like that'll never happen, since Keiichi is right in between her and Mion. I quietly chuckle to myself as Rena starts yelling out how she wants to take the card home because she thinks it's so cute.

To me, these people are so unique. They each have their own personalities. Rena's the kind one. She cares about her friends very much. She tends to act childish at times, but she can also be very serious. Mion's the playful one. She loves to play games and make jokes. She acts very tomboyish, but Shion had once said that Mion has a soft side that no except for her knows about. Shion's the girly one. She likes to flirt, mostly with Keiichi to make Mion mad, and is very lady-like. She's very protective when it comes to her friends, especially with her sister and Satoko. Satoko's the mischievous one. She likes to set traps and get Keiichi in trouble. She's very nice to her friends, especially Rika, who she lives with. She's a great cook and is gets serious when it comes to games. Rika's the sweet one. Like Rena, she cares a lot about her friends. Whenever someone's down, she always tries to cheer them up. Because she's the shrine maiden of the village, she's very important to other villagers and is popular around town. Keiichi is Rena and Mion combined, being both kind and playful towards others. He has a brotherly bond with Satoko and loves to tease Rena and Mion. He has an amazing way with words, which was demonstrated yesterday when he was trying to settle a dispute between Mion and Shion over who's smarter. I had been entranced with the way he had spoken to them.

They're all happy and full of life. They laugh, joke, and play around. But, even though they seem so joyful, I can't help but notice the darkness behind their eyes. It's as if they're hiding something from me. I know it's rude to assume something like that, but I can't help it. I'm not saying they're actually sad and are just trying to hide it by pretending to be cheerful. I just think that something bad had happened in the past, and that, even though it's over, they still have memories of that time.

"Keiichi-san wins this round!" I hear Yoshirou yells.

I had been so busy thinking about my new friends that I missed a whole round. A card that has a picture of a dog running outside is in Keiichi's right hand. Rena's next to him, swooning over the picture. I look at the card I had won and notice that all of the cards Yoshirou has told us to find have pictures of animals on them. I can't believe I hadn't realized that before.

I was about to put my card away when Rena unexpectedly snatched it out of my hand. "Auuu! I never noticed how cute the kitty card was! I'm taking it home with meee!" she exclaims loudly.

"I'm sorry, Rena, but you can't take that card home," Keiichi says, grinning.

"Why can't I, I wonder, I wonder?" she asks, tilting her head a little. Her eyes look so sad, as if she's about to burst into tears any minute now, but I know that's not going to happen. She never cries whenever Mion or Keiichi tell her she can't take something home. Yesterday, she had found about 5 different things that she wanted to take home. Each time, either Mion or Keiichi told her that she can't because it didn't belong to her.

Keiichi looks at me. "Because that card is Aya-chan's," he replies.

Rena whimpers a little before handing me back my card. She turns around and goes back to her seat.

Mion laughs. "Don't worry, Rena." Her smile turns into an evil smirk. Keiichi told me yesterday that whenever Mion's thinking of some kind of crazy idea, she smirks and gets some kind of evil look in her eye.

"How about this: if you win, you can take _Aya-chan _home…" Mion's smirk gets bigger as she looks at me. I look at Rena, who has a big smile on her face. She raises a fist in the air and yells, "Yeah!"

After that, we continue our game. After about an hour, the game is finished. Rena had ended up winning, which is why, after the game was done, I ended up in her arms as she ran down the street. After a while, Rena stops at the watermill that's near the school. After about 5 minutes, the others show up, red-faced and out of breath.

Keiichi, who's bending over with his hands on his knees, says, "Wow, Rena, you sure can run."

Rena blushes at the comment. Keiichi laughs but then starts coughing, because he's still out of breath.

Soon, we all say our good-byes and separated. Satoko and Rika had to go into town and buy some ingredients for a soup they're making for dinner tonight. Rena wanted to go treasure hunting at the dump. Mion had to leave because she needed to help Yoshirou clean up. Shion had to go to Angel Mort, which is where she works.

Keiichi and I walked and talked with each other until we got to Keiichi's house. He said good-bye to me and then went inside his house. As I walked down the pathway that leads to my house, I fantasize about what's going to happen at school tomorrow. Maybe Satoko will let me, along with Rika, help her set up one of her traps. Maybe Rena will try to take someone else home. Maybe Mion will plan something fun for us to play.

Maybe something interesting will happen…


	4. Chapter 4

While I was walking towards the front door of the school building, I thought again about what might happen today. I was very excited to see my friends again. I really enjoy hanging out with them. My parents are happy that I had made friends so quickly. I remember how, on the day I was told we were going to be moving, I had been yelling at them about how, no matter where I live, I'll always have a hard time making friends. I had been so mad that day. I know that the reason we had moved didn't revolve around me and my life at school. But they had said that moving to a new school could give me the chance to start new and change my shy image. I can't believe they'd actually say that to me. I know they had been trying to cheer me up about moving, but it had never worked. All it did was make me angry and feel like crap. I mean, really, even my own parents had thought that it's stupid that I'm too shy to make an actual friend. But now I'm happy that we had moved. I may still be as shy as ever, but, now, I actually have a bunch of great friends, and, to me, that's all that matters right now.

I walk down the long hallway of the school building and stop at the closed side door. I open the door and smile. Although, right after I opened it, a large bucket of cold water fell on me. The bucket covered my whole head. Drops of water drips from the rim. My clothes are soaked, sticking to me like glue. It's a good thing I have nothing to hide.

I start shivering from the coldness of the water. My teeth are chattering and my knees are knocking against each other.

"Oh, Aya-chan, I'm SO sorry!" I hear someone exclaim. I can tell that the voice belongs to Satoko. I shakily lift the bucket off of my head and throw it to the ground next to me. I see Satoko and Rika standing in front of me with worried faces.

Rika clasps her hands together in front of her, as if she was about to pray. "Aya-chan, are you okay? We didn't know you arrived at school before Keiichi does. If we had of known that, we would've set this trap after you came. Mii~"

"I-It's okay..." I say, stuttering because my teeth are chattering.

"Let me get you a towel, Aya-chan," Satoko says, running out of the room and, most likely, to the bathroom. I know they didn't mean to do this... well, not to ME, anyway. On my first day here, I arrived at school after everyone else was already here, which is why Satoko and Rika thought I'd get here after Keiichi and the others.

I look around at the classroom and see that the other students are either looking at me or trying to focus on something other than me standing here, soaking wet. I blush a deep red until Satoko returns with a pale yellow towel. I say thank you and then wrap the towel around my shoulders. I instantly feel much warmer.

I leave the room and head to the bathroom to dry off. I take all of my clothes off and wrapped the towel around me, making it look like a dress. I sit down on the bench that's in the bathroom and wonder when the others will arrive. Hopefully, they'll arrive soon. It'd be bad, to me, if they didn't come to school at all today.

The bathroom door opens and Shion walks inside.

"Hey, Satoko and Rika are really sorry about what happened..." she says quietly.

"Eh, it's okay. I know they didn't mean for all of that to happen to me," I say, reassuringly. I don't want anyone thinking I'm mad about all of this, because I'm not. I'm actually a little happy that, in a way, I got to partake in one of Satoko's traps. Keiichi had told me that Satoko's best traps are made outside of the school, because she can't do many really great traps in school without getting in trouble. I hope I'll be able to see one of her outside-of-school traps. I bet they're very cool and creative.

"Wow... this place is so... peaceful..." I randomly say. It's actually very true. This place is so pretty. The scenery here is beautiful. There's so many places to explore. The birds chirp happily while the cicadas sing lovely notes and songs. This place is much better than where I used to live, where it was always so noise outside with all the people and traffic.

Shion nods her head in agreement.

"I bet nothing bad ever happens here..." I say, more to myself than her.

Shion looks at me weirdly before redirecting her gaze to the mirror that's in front of her. She looks calm, but I can tell that she's a little conflicted right now.

"What's wrong, Shi-chan?" I ask. I got the idea of calling her that from Rena. I think Rena's nicknames for Mion and Shion are really cool. I also think they're kind of cute. Maybe Rena thought so, too. Maybe that's why she decided to call them that.

Shion sighs and then smiles while she's still looking into the mirror. "It's nothing, Aya-chan. Don't worry about it... Okay?" With that, she leaves the bathroom.

I roll my eyes. Obviously, it was _something_. It's not like her mood had changed so suddenly for no reason. I guess it was just something personal that had happened. I guess that's why she said not to worry about it: because it had happened in the past and there's nothing that I_ or anybody else_ can do to help.

I put my school clothes, which have dried, back on and then leave the bathroom. I enter the classroom, where I see that everything has gone back to normal. I'm glad no one was staring at me anymore. I really hate it when people do, because it makes me nervous, which causes me to blush.

Satoko and Rika are at their desks, coloring pictures. Shion's at her desk, looking as bored as ever. Rena, Mion, and Keiichi are deep in a conversation with each other. I sit down next to Keiichi, who chuckles a little.

"I heard that you had fallen for a trap that was meant for me," he says. Rena giggles a little into the palm of her hand while Mion just smirks.

"Yeah, but it's okay," I reply sheepishly.

"Kei-chan, you shouldn't be so mean to Aya-chan, especially since you also had a trap pulled on you," Mion says. She lets out a laugh as Keiichi grumbles to himself.

"Yeah, apparently, since you had taken the blow from that one trap that was meant for Kei-kun, Satoko and Rika quickly set up another one," Rena tells me.

"That's right. When he entered the classroom, he tripped on a thin wire and fell forwards, with his face landing in a small container of spoiled milk. It had made my day..." Mion says.

"Aww, it wasn't funny!" Rena says sadly.

"Yes, it was!" Mion replies, frowning.

"No, it wasn't. You just think it was because you like seeing him in pain..."

"You just think it wasn't because you like him!" Mion barks, narrowing her eyes.

Rena glares right back at her. "I-I do not!" she exclaims.

"Yes, you do! You also think you're so much better than the rest of us, which is why you think Kei-chan will fall for you instead me!" Mion snaps.

"Mi-chan!"

"Shut up, Rena! I'm tired of hearing your annoying voice!" Mion exclaims angrily. You can easily tell she's very mad right now by the look in her eyes. It kind of scares me to look into them, since they're full of anger and disgust. I wonder if she and Rena often have fights like this. I hope so, because, if that were the case, they'd most likely make up by either lunchtime or at the end of the day. Mion doesn't seem like the kind of person who'd hold grudges, especially not towards her friends.

Rena's eyes are full of sadness. It makes me want to hug her very tightly and tell her every thing's going to be okay. But I can't do that, because I don't know if that's true or not.

The next thing I hear is a sound similar to that of a snap. I look at Mion and see that her head is slightly turned to the right, away from me, while Rena's hand is right in front of her face. I can't believe it. Rena had just slapped Mion in the face. This isn't good. This isn't good. This isn't good.

Mion grabs Rena by her hair and yanks it, causing Rena to yelp. Rena pushes Mion as hard as she could. Mion falls backwards in her seat and falls to the floor with a thud. But, because she kept a hold onto Rena's hair the whole time, she had dragged Rena down towards her and caused her to hit her nose on seat of the chair. Mion lets go of Rena's hair and picks herself up off the ground. I look around the classroom and see that everyone's looking in our direction. I blush, even though they're looking at Rena and Mion, not me. I really hope Ms. Chie gets here soon.

When Mion gets back onto her feet, she lunges at Rena. She grabs a handful of Rena's hair and throws her out of her seat and into the nearby wall. A few moans escape from Rena as she struggles to get up. Mion walks over to her and puts a foot on her back. Rena grunts as she's pushed down to the ground by Mion's foot. She glares up at Mion, who's smirking down at her. Shion suddenly gets up and marches over to where the two are. She grabs Mion's arm and tries to pull her away from Rena. But Mion, who's set on fighting Rena, just pushes Shion away. When Shion doesn't stop trying to get her away from Rena, she gets angry and strikes Shion across the face. Shion stumbles backwards a little from the impact. She holds a hand up to her face, shocked that Mion would hit her. I'm shocked, too. They seem like they get along very well, despite their very different personalities. I know that most siblings fight, but Mion and Shion seem like the kind who'd fight with each other.

"Nee-Nee!" Satoko exclaims at the same time Rika yells, "Shi-chan!" I guess Nee-Nee is a nickname Satoko gave Shion. Also, I didn't know Rika calls Shion the same name that Rena I call her. I know Rika calls Mion "Mi-san", because Mion's an important person, being the next head of the village and all that.

I call Rika "Rika-chan", although sometimes I call her "Rika-chama" or "Rika-sama" since she IS the town's miko. Also, I heard that she's the last person in the Furude family, which is one of the 3 great families, along with the Kimiyoshi and the Sonozaki family.

Satoko runs up to Shion and hugs her around the waist. "Nee-Nee, are you okay?" she asks.

"Shi-chan, do you want Satoko-chan and I to get some ice?" Rika asks, walking up next to Satoko.

"I-I'm okay..." Shion says, casting her eyes downwards.

I get up and stand next to Rika. I see Rena getting up with wobbly arms. She must really be in pain. I can't believe Mion would do that to Rena. They sometimes act like they're sisters, even though they're not related at all.

I go over to her and help her onto her feet. I lead her towards the classroom door. While we're walking down the hallway, we see Ms. Chie. Her hair's a mess and her dress is wrinkled.

"Ryuugu-san, what happened?" she asks, her eyes wide.

"Mion got mad at her and—"

Ms. Chie ran past us and into the room. I heard her yell something, but I couldn't tell what exactly she was saying. I ignore it and continue helping Rena towards the bathroom. When we get there, she sits on a bench that's inside and I dampen a paper towel with water. I give it to her and she places it on her forehead. I dampen another paper towel and then clean the dirt off of her arms with it.

"T-Thank you, Aya-chan," she says quietly. I nod my head in response. She sits there silently as I finish cleaning off the dirt. I wonder if Mion has ever snapped like this before. She'll be lucky if Rena decides to stay her friend even after everything that has happened. Rena's a great person. I don't think she had deserved all of this. All she had done was stick up for Keiichi.

After I'm done cleaning Rena, I wrap my arm around her shoulder, which was kind of hard since I'm much shorter than her, and help her walk out of the bathroom. We head down the hallway, but stop at the doorway when we see Ms. Chie, whose back is turned towards us, angrily yelling at Mion. Mion notices us and winces a little when she sees the condition Rena's in. Ms. Chie turns around and gasps at us. We walk further into the room. The other students look at us with wide eyes.

"Ryuugu-san, I'll call your dad right away to come pick you up," Ms. Chie says. She looks at Shion and narrows her eyes. "Sonozaki-san, I need you to keep your sister away from Ryuugu-san." After that, she hurries out of the classroom, the door shutting loudly behind her. We all stand silently for a while before Keiichi gets up from his seat and slowly walks towards me and Rena. He takes Rena's right hand into both of his and looks at her with eyes of concern. Rena, realizing how worried she had made Keiichi, smiles in hopes of cheering him up.

"Rena... are you okay?" he asks, oblivious to all of the stares he's receiving from the other students. It's as if, right now, he and Rena are the only two people on the planet. They're lost deep in each other's eyes, searching for the answers they need: Is everything going to be okay? How will this affect the club? Will things ever be the same?

I don't think it will. I mean, it's possible, but Mion had done something forgetful. I know Rena won't ever forget this day. She might choose to stay friends with Mion, but she'll certainly always remember what Mion had done to her. I'm pretty sure all of the other club members know that, too.

Keiichi turns away from Rena and glares at Mion. "What's wrong with you, Mion!" he asks, raising his voice.

Mion's eyes widen. She puts a hand on her chest. She looks like she's about to cry. "Kei-chan—"

"Shut up, Mion!" Keiichi snaps, surprising everyone. He has never said her name without either a "-san" or a "-sama" at the end. He's acting like he's not Mion's friend anymore. "You could've killed Rena! I-I can't believe you could be so stupid!"

I can see tears pricking at the corners of Mion's eyes. I'm not surprised that she's about to cry, because I know she has a crush on Keiichi, and I'm pretty sure it must hurt to be yelled at by the one they like.

"I-I—"

"Just don't talk to me, Mion!" he yells.

Mion covered her face with her hands as she ran out of the classroom. Because I'm still near the door, I was able to hear her crying as she ran down the hallway. I instantly felt bad for her. I agree that she did deserve to be punished for what she had done, but Ms. Chie had already taken care of that. Keiichi was supposed to talk to Mion and comfort her. He was supposed to find out why she had acted out. But, instead, he chose to snap at Mion. I know it would've made more sense if Shion was the who should comfort Mion, since she's Mion's twin, but I think Keiichi would've done something better. I don't know why I think that. All I know is that, because Mion likes him, Keiichi could've been able to help Mion through all of this.

Suddenly, a loud cracking noise was heard. It sounded sort of like a whip. It was the sane sound that was made when Rena had hit Mion. I turn my attention to Keiichi, who was lying on the ground. Standing in front of him was Shion. The palm of her hand was beet red, just like the side of Keiichi's face. She narrows her eyes and slows her breathing a little.

"How could you say that to Onee?" she asks, screaming as loud as she can.

Now Keiichi's the frightened one. "I-I'm sorry, but—"

"Can it, Kei-chan! You hurt her feelings..." Shion sighs and looks away. "I don't think I can talk to you right now..." She opens the door and then heads out into the hallway. The door slams shut behind her. Great, now someone else has gotten tangled in the web of unhappiness. First Rena, then Mion, and, now, Shion. I bet Keiichi's going to be next.

Class was excused for the rest of the day, meaning that we got to go home early. Usually, I'd be happy to leave school, but, right now, I'm not so ecstatic about it. Not just because I don't have anything to do, but also because there's so many problems that need to be fixed. All of those problems revolve around Rena, Mion, Shion, and Keiichi. We_ Satoko, Rika, and I_ need to fix the relationship between Rena and Mion, Mion and Keiichi, and Shion and Keiichi, but… I'm not sure how we'll be able to do all of that.


	5. Chapter 5

When I had first come to Hinamizawa, I was very nervous. I had thought that I wasn't going to be able to make any friends, especially since I wasn't able to make many friends back at my old school. But then I met Keiichi and the others, and that's how I had learned that I can be social with a lot of different people. That's what had made me realize that I can start new here as someone who's not afraid to talk to others. Their strength as a group of friends gave me courage. I had thought that they could get through anything with each of their personalities, but all of that was before yesterday's fight. That fight between Rena and Mion caused a fight to go off between Mion and Keiichi, which, in turn, caused a fight to happen between Shion and Keiichi.

I only have one idea so far that might get them to be friends again. I think that since Rena and Keiichi are still on good terms with each other, they'd be able to come up with something that could get them Mion's forgiveness. I'm going to have to think of more ideas with Satoko and Rika. They might have some very good plans that could get the whole group back together.

I walk through the classroom's doorway and instantly notice that Rena and Mion aren't sitting next to each other anymore. Rena and Keiichi are still sitting where they usually do, while Mion is now sitting next to Shion. To tell the truth, I'm actually kind of happy that Mion isn't sitting with Rena, Keiichi, and I, because now we'll be able to secretly think of a way to get Mion to forgive Rena and Keiichi.

I take my seat next to Keiichi, who's just sitting there with a bored expression on his face. The tension in the air causes a small shiver to run down my spine. I feel like standing up and yelling at the 4 of them to just forgive each other and become friends again. But I know that doing so won't fix anything. I just really hope that something will.

"Hey, guys," I say, putting on a fake smile, even when I want to put on a frown instead. I hate that they're all being too stubborn to apologize to each other. If they'd just say they're sorry, we can all just go back to being friends, laughing and playing with each other. But, of course, it's going to take a lot more than just a plea to get them to apologize to each other.

Keiichi gives me a grim smile. "Hey, Aya-chan," he says.

Rena smiles at me. Even though she's smiling, I can easily tell she's sad just by looking into her eyes, which now seem like a clouded-over blue instead of the lively blue that it usually is. "How's it going?" I can't believe she just asked me that. How it's going for me isn't important right now. What's important is how she, Mion, Shion, and Keiichi are doing.

I decide to answer anyways. "Fine," I reply, although I'm actually not fine. I'm upset. But I'm not going to let them know that. They're the ones who should be upset, since they're the ones who were involved in the stupid fight.

"So what're you going to do to fix this?" I ask. I know I shouldn't be confronting her and Keiichi about the fight this early in the morning, but I can't help but want all of this to end as soon as possible.

"Excuse me?" Rena asks with a worried expression. I wonder if she truly doesn't know what I'm talking about or if she's just playing dumb to get me to leave the topic alone. Either way, I'm not going to give up that easily at ending this feud. It's going to take a lot more than playing dumb to get me to shut up.

"I'm talking about the fight," I reply bluntly. Both Rena and Keiichi look away from me and down at the floor. They obviously don't want to talk about what had happened.

"Nothing," I hear Rena whisper. I can't believe this. Did she really just say what I thought I heard? Does she not want to go back to being friends with Mion? If that's the case, then why not? Sure, Mion did lash out at her, but I don't think one fight should rip apart a once-beautiful friendship between many people.

"What'd you say?" I ask, making sure I had heard correctly. I'm hoping that I hadn't and that she had actually said "something" instead.

"I said nothing... As in, I'm not going to do anything to fix what had happened," Rena says flatly.

My eyes widen in shock. "What the heck is wrong with you?" I exclaim, quickly rising to my feet. I stare down at Rena, who's looking away from me, trying to ignore my gaze. I know that about everyone's eyes are on me at the moment, but, oddly, I don't care. Also, I can tell that I'm not blushing at all, which, to me, is a big surprise, since, right now, everyone's attention is on me. To tell the truth, I'm actually glad about that, because now everyone will be able to see how stubborn Rena is being, and that she's being rude for not even wanting to try to mend things up with Mion.

"I may be much younger than you, but that doesn't mean that you're better than me at everything, especially since I seem to be the smarter one when it comes to friendships!" I snap. When Rena keeps looking downwards, my anger increases. I pick up a book off of a nearby desk and throw it at her. The book bounces off of her head and onto the floor. Rena looks up at me with hurt eyes.

"I can't believe you can't just forgive Mion-san! She was your best friend for crying out loud!" I yell. I hear my voice getting louder and louder with each sentence I speak. "If you don't want to reunite the whole club, then fine, be that way!" I storm out of the room, not bothering to shut the door behind me. I race down the hallway and out the building. I instantly smell the grass, which was wet, because it had rained a little bit last night. I walked down the road, towards the village. When I get there, I immediately see the food market. I walk around, looking at all the different kinds of fruits, fish, vegetables, and other colorful things. At my old school, once every year, the older kids got to visit the good markets to buy food for a homeless people organization. I never got to do that, though, since I'm still young. You had to be at least 13 to be able to participate in the activity. A lot of people that did get to participate said that the activity was very fun, especially since you get to look at foods you've probably never seen or tasted before. You learn about new types of foods, along with getting to have a free sample of some of the things. I was looking at something when, suddenly, someone walked into me.

It was a round, old man with short gray hair. He was wearing a dark gray shirt with a red tie and red suspenders, along with khaki pants and a khaki jacket, which he was holding in his left hand. In his right hand was a lit cigarette.

"Oh, excuse me, young lady," the old man says. He walks past me, but then turns his head around. "Are you the new girl?" he asks.

How would he know that? "Yeah… What about it?"

The old man lets out a deep laugh. "Allow me to introduce myself: I'm Detective Kuraudo Oiishi. I used to work for the Okinomiya Police Station, until I retired last year," he explains.

"You're a retired detective?" I ask. I've never met_ or even seen, for that matter_ a real detective before. I've only seen detectives on TV. I used to watch lots of shows that involve crimes and detectives back in Ibaraki, since I never had any real friends to hang out with during my free time, although, now, I rarely watch any TV at all, because I actually made friends.

"Yep. I used to investigate the incidents that had happened every year during the Watanagashi Festival," he replies, smiling. "But after the truth behind the curse was revealed, I retired, so I could help my elderly mother."

Wait a minute, I wasn't told anything about whatever curse he's talking about. I do know about the Watanagashi Festival, since my parents had told me about it sometime after we had first arrived here. Also, what "incidents" is he talking about? Is he talking about a kidnapping or something like that?

"What curse?"

He let out another deep laugh. "No one has told you yet?" he asks. I shake head.

He looks around, as if he's looking for someone that was supposed to meet him here.

"We shouldn't talk about this in public. So many people are trying to forget about the 'curse'. How about we talk about it over at that nearby cafe?"

I slowly nod my head. If this guy wasn't a detective or a policeman, I would've told him no thanks. Whenever I'm about to go off somewhere by myself, my parents always stop me ANC remind me to not go off with strangers. They say that if I do something bad might happen, such as being killed. I do believe them, of course, since that's an actual fact. They also tell me to keep the doors locked whenever I'm staying home alone, so no one can break in.

I get into the backseat of Detective Oishi's car, and then we drive off towards the small cafe. When we get there, we sit across from each other at a booth that's next to the window. He orders a cup of coffee, while I just sit there, looking at my hands, which are resting on my lap.

Detective Oishi takes a sip of his coffee and then clears his throat, causing me to look up at him. He sets his cup down on a coaster and grins at me.

"Now it's time for you to learn about the curse of Oyashiro..."


	6. Chapter 6

During 1978, a dam project that would've flooded the village was made and led by Mr. Hojo. Everyone, except for the Hojo family and some other people, were completely against the Dam Project, because flooding the village would anger their god, Oyashiro-sama. In 1979, the Dam Project was stopped. During the Watanagashi Festival that year the dam construction manager was killed by the other construction workers. Also, that night, the leader of the construction workers went missing. Later, the Yamainu, which is a force that works for TOKYO, an organization that researches a syndrome called the "Hinamizawa Syndrome", discovered the leader's corpse before the police did, and then used it as a live specimen for their organization.

During 1980, on the day of the Watanagashi Festival, Mr. Hojo and his wife fell off of a high-cliff viewing platform. The police investigators later found Mr. Hojo's body, but weren't able to find his wife's body. During the day of the 1981's Watanagashi Festival, Rika's father died of a mysterious disease. Apparently, his wife, Rika's mother, drowned herself in a nearby swamp to make Oyashiro-sama happy. The police investigators weren't able to find her body, but they did find her shoes near the river, along with a suicide note next to them.

Also, during 1982, on the night of the Watanagashi Festival, Tamae Hojo, the aunt of Satoko and her older brother, Satoshi, was murdered. Police had suspected Satoshi at first, since he and Satoko were known to have been abused by their aunt and uncle, until another police station caught the real killer, who was a drug addict that wanted to repeat the curse. A couple days later, Satoshi disappeared, leaving his sister and uncle, who, later, left Hinamizawa, because he was scared that he'd be killed, too.

Last, during 1983, which was last year, Miyo Takano, who was a nurse at the Irie Clinic, was revealed to have been behind the curse of Oyashiro. She had been working for TOKYO to learn more about the Hinamizawa Syndrome. To prove the Hinamizawa's existence, she was going to kill Oyashiro's reincarnation, Rika, to cause the whole village to go insane, and then let out a poisonous gas into the village that'd kill everyone. Fortunately, she had been stopped by Rika and the others before she was able to do so, and was then taken away to be treated for the Hinamizawa Sydrome, which she had somehow gotten infected by.

I can't believe no one ever told me about any of this. Was it just that they wanted to forget about all of it? I'd understand if they had wanted to put the past behind them. I just can't help but feel left out. It really would've been nice to know that they had fought in a very intense battle against a very strong organization. I would've been so happy and proud of them. Fighting against people who are older, stronger, and more skilled than me is something I'd never be able to do.

After Oishi drops me off at school, I barge into the building and storm down the halls. I slam the door open, causing it to hit the wall very hard. The loud thud causes a lot of the students to jump and/or look up at me. My face heats up as I walk over to my desk. I slide into my chair, ignoring the stares of the other students.

"Catina-chan, where have you been?" Ms. Chie asks, getting up out of her chair. She narrows her eyes at me and crosses her arms over her chest.

I might as well not lie to her. Almost everyone was here when I had run out of the classroom, meaning that if I lie, someone could easily tell her the truth. "I needed to blow off some steam," I said nonchalantly.

Ms. Chie sighs and lets her hands fall down to her sides. "We'll talk about this later. Right now, I'd like you to start on the math worksheet I had passed out earlier." She points to a stack of papers that are sitting on an empty desk. I nod and get up. I grab a sheet and then walk back to my desk. I sit down and immediately begin working on the first problem. I'm happy that no one's looking at my anymore. I hate it when a lot of people stare at me.

During lunchtime, instead of pushing our desks together so we can talk to each other, we stay where we are. Lunchtime was very boring and quiet. There were a few people who were talking to each other, such as Satoko, Rika, and some others, but that's about it. Everyone else was quietly eating. Out of the corner of my eye, I see that Keiichi hasn't even touched his lunch. He's just moving the meat and rice around with his chopsticks.

After lunchtime, Ms. Chie announces that we're going to have to have recess inside, because it's raining outside. There were a bunch of groans coming from the younger kids. Ms. Chie says she needs to go ask the principal something and then leaves the room. I pull a book out of my over-the-shoulder bag. I was about to start reading when I hear a smacking sound. I look up from my book and my eyes widen in shock.

Rika, whose left cheek was red, was lying on the ground in front of Mion, who was standing over her menacingly. Mion grabbed Rika by the collar and pulled her up off the ground.

"Don't you _dare_ say I'm being unfair!" Mion snaps. She throws Rika into the wall, causing Rika to shriek a little. Mion grabbed a chair and dragged it behind her as she walks towards the younger girl.

"I'm being completely fair!" Mion yells before hitting Rika with the chair. She raises the chair up and brings it down again. Rika covers her head in fear and curls up into a ball. Mion repeatedly hits her with a chair until Satoko jumps in the way, her arms spread out.

"Stop it, Mi-chan!" she exclaims, glaring at the older girl.

Mion returns the glare and sneers. "The brat deserves it for saying I'm being unfair towards that red-headed freak!" She tightens her grip on the chair. "Now move out of the way or else I'll punish you, too!"

Satoko, instead of moving away, just stands there. She straightens her posture, making her a little taller. A fire of confidence burns in her eyes as she glowers at Mion. "No," she says in a monotone voice.

Mion growls in anger. She raises the chair above her head, ready to bring it down on Satoko's head. But, before she can, someone grabs her wrist and pulls her away from Satoko. It was Shion.

"Don't you even _think _about hurting Satoko-chan or I swear I'll—"

"Shion-san, stop!" someone yells. I turn my head towards the voice and see Keiichi, who's now standing up. Mion and Shion both look at him with emotionless eyes. Satoko turns around and starts helping Rika stand up. I get out of my chair and run over to where they are. I drape one of Rika's arms around my shoulder, while Satoko gets the other, and then we help her out of the room.

We walk down the hallway and into the principal's office, where Ms. Chie and the principal are quietly talking to each other. When they see us, they're eyes widen, sort of like how mine had when I saw that Mion had slapped Rika. Ms. Chie helps Satoko and I set Rika down on the bench that's outside, while the principal calls Dr. Irie, who, since Takano's gone, now fully owns the Irie Clinic. Detective Oishi had told me that Takano had used the Irie Clinic as another place to study the Hinamizawa Syndrome.

Dr. Irie arrives and takes Rika away. After they're gone, Ms. Chie asks me and Satoko what had happened. When we're done explaining, she marches out the principal's office. We silently follow her down the hallway and, while she stands at the doorway with her arms crossed over her chest, slip into the classroom.

"Sonozaki-san, come with me right now!" she yells before storming off down the hall. Mion reluctantly leaves the classroom and follows her.


	7. Chapter 7

Apparently, after Ms. Chie left the room, Rika had told Mion that she was being unfair towards Rena, which had obviously made Mion mad. What had really confused me was that Ms. Chie called Dr. Irie, the village's doctor, to pick up Mion instead of Rika. I had then learned from Rena and the others that Mion had most likely been infected by the Hinamizawa Syndrome, the disease that Detective Oishi had told me about. I remember how there are 5 different stages of the Hinamizawa Syndrome. Level 1 and 2 are the levels that that most of the villagers, including me, have. I find it kind of creepy and weird that, right now, I'm infected with a disease that could kill me. Level 3 is when the victim of the disease starts to become psychologically ill and sort of unpredictable. Level 4 is when the victim starts having hallucinations and becomes very paranoid. Not being able to tell what's real and what's not frightens me a little. Last, level 5 is when the victim starts clawing out their own throat, along with hearing the voice of Oyashiro-sama. I think that committing suicide by clawing out your own throat is really scary. What bothers me is that fact that, sometimes, the victim doesn't even realize what he or she is doing to themselves. It's as if they're sleep-killing or something like that.

Rika, in private, told me how Satoko used to be at level 5. I find that odd, since she's such a happy and sweet little girl. But then Rika reminded me about Satoko's dark past. The reason that Satoko's now at level 3 is that she's taking these shots that reduces the levels of the disease. Rika also told me that the shots were produced from a part of her own blood. I remember how Oishi had called Rika the "Queen Bee", which is the carrier of the Hinamizawa Sydrome. It's known as a fact that if you leave her, or, in other words, the village, you'll be infected with the disease.

Also, Rena was infected with the disease, too. Rika had told me that Rena had once transferred away from Hinamizawa to Ibaraki. She had then become infected with the disease, causing her to slit her wrist open and think that maggots were crawling in her blood. Also, she had attacked 3 students and had smashed all of her school's windows. Apparently, she had heard Oyashiro-sama, who told her that if she wanted to live she had to return to Hinamizawa, which is why she's here today.

I find it a little hard to believe that Rena would've done something like that. She seems so sane. But I know for a fact that Rika wouldn't lie about this. I'm just surprised that Mion would suddenly be infected by the Hinamizawa Syndrome. I don't know what it was that caused her to become infected. Did it have to do with Rena? She did seem normal until that little argument with Rena about Keiichi stepping into a trap. I guess I'll have to talk to Rika and the others about it tomorrow.

Right now, I'm at home. My parents aren't home from work, yet, so I have the house all to myself. I really wish there was something I could do, though. I'm very bored. I know I could probably just call someone and ask them if they'd want to hang out, but, considering what had happened at school, I don't think that'd be a good idea. I'd like to visit the clinic and check up on Mion, who was submitted there and put on sedatives to calm her down, but I was just there. I guess all I can really do right now is stay here and watch TV to pass time.

Or maybe I could go to the dump. I bet I could find something fun to do there. Rena's always there, looking for cute things to take home. Maybe I could find some old toys to play with or something like that.

I slip on my shoes and head outside. Since it's still about noon, the sun is high in the sky, shining proudly down on the village. I run down the path that leads to the dump. When I get there, I start searching through the nearest pile of junk. I throw pieces of trash behind me as I dig through the heap of garbage.

"What're you doing here?" I hear someone ask.

I look behind me and see the figure of Rena towering over me. Recalling what Rika had told me earlier, I shrink back away from Rena in fear. But then I remember that Rena's not like she was back in Ibaraki and that she'd never purposely hurt her friends. So I gather up my courage and stand up. Because I'm younger than her, I only come up to her chest.

I look up at her and smile. "Hello, Rena. I was just looking for something to do," I say sweetly. "Would you like to help?"

Her face brightens up at the idea of helping me. I guess she really wants to find something cute right now.

"Sure!" she exclaims cheerfully. I hope looking for something cute will take my mind off of everything that's going on right now. I don't enjoy thinking about how one of my friends is infected with a disease that could cause them to kill themselves.

We begin looking through the trash pile that I had been working on before Rena had showed up. I use a crowbar to heave the heavy stuff out of the way. Rena uses her axe to chop up some of the wood and metal materials that are in the way. We search through many different areas of the trash heap, throwing debris and scraps behind us.

"Aya-chan, I found something!" I hear Rena exclaim. I look over at her and see her holding up a stuffed rabbit in front of her. It's a light pink and has a few holes in its side. The right eye is hanging by a thread, while the top half to the left ear is missing. To me, it's both cute and ugly.

"Awww! It's _so _cute! I'm taking it home with meee!" Rena yells out, tightly clutching the toy to her chest.

"That's great, Rena," I say.

"Oooh, what's that Aya-chan?" she asks me, nodding her head towards a small, light gray box that's near my feet. I pick it up and hold it in front of me so Rena can get a good look at it. It's about the size of my head and is locked shut. I shake it a little and hear something rattling inside of it.

"Set it down for a second," Rena says calmly. I set the box down onto the ground between us. Rena picks up her axe and swings it down onto the box. The box cracks open a little, although not enough for us to be able to completely open it up. She swings at it again, opening it up even more. She swings a third time, breaking the box in half. She drops her axe and bends down to see what's inside the box. I do the same and then pull out a cloth-covered object.

"What do you think it is?" I ask her. She shrugs her shoulders in reply.

I place the object onto the ground and start to carefully unravel it. When a part of the last layer is off, I see some skin. I rip off the rest of the cloth and see what the object is: a hand. Not a fake hand; a real hand.

"Oh… my… gosh," I hear Rena mutter.

I run away from the hand and throw up into a nearby bucket. I wipe my mouth off with the end of my sleeve. I stumble back towards Rena and plop down onto the ground. "W-We have to tell the police about this…" I say. I can tell it's not a hand from a murder committed back then, because the blood that's around it and on the cloths isn't completely dry yet.

The last thing I hear before the blackness encloses me is someone laughing psychotically.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: **I warn you: this chapter's a little gory XD

I woke up to the sound of laughing. I find it a little funny that that's also the last thing I had heard before passing out. For some reason, I feel like I'm in danger right now, even though I'm only half-awake. I try to move my hands, but I can't move them. I try again, but to no avail. When I completely open my eyes, I see that my hands are handcuffed in front of me. I look around to see if someone will be nearby, dangling the key in the air, saying how everything, including the hand, was just a joke. But the only person I saw was Mion… who was smiling menacingly at me. That's when I realized that I was in a cell, behind bars. I instantly feel like I'm in jail, even though I'm pretty sure I'm not.

"Oh, you're awake?" Mion asks me, smiling deviously from outside of the cell I'm in.

I couldn't find my voice to say yes, so all I did was nod.

She laughs evilly. "That's good. I was getting tired of waiting."

She must have seen the confused look on my face, because then she says, "I wanted you to see the show I'm about to put on."

I'm really hoping it's a fun show, instead of a show that I wish I had never watched. Back in Ibaraki, on TV, I'd watch performances done by many different people. Sometimes, I really enjoyed them. Although, sometimes I wish I had never watched them, whether it's because it was so dumb I had felt my IQ drop or because it was so scary that I was really sure I was going to have nightmares that night. My favorite kind of performances to watch were comedy acts. Back then, I watched a lot of comedy shows, because I wanted to have at least one or two things to laugh about in my life. Since I didn't have any real friends to laugh with, I stuck with watching shows that made me feel happy on the inside _and_ on the outside.

I have a feeling that this show isn't going to be very good. I've always had that _special talent_: to be able to tell if something I'm about to watch is going to be good or not. Usually, I'm right about whether it was a good-enough show to watch or not. I'm only wrong ¼ of the time, which is why I'm sure that this show isn't going to be very fun to watch. But, because I'm trapped here, I'm just going to have to watch, since I have nothing else to do. Anyway, I'm also sure that Mion's going to _force _me to watch, because of how she was _waiting _for me to wake up, just so I could watch.

"Are you ready?" Mion asks me. That malicious grin of hers causes my stomach to churn. I feel a little sick now from seeing it so much. Because I still don't have my voice yet, I just nod like I did before. Mion's smile widens, causing my heart to start beating faster in fear.

Mion walks over to some double-doors and then opens them up wide. She turns on a light and enters the large room. Because of where I am, I can barely see what's inside the room. All I can see is some sort of equipment. I can't tell what kind, though.

I hear the loud noise of something being dragged around on the floor. I see Mion pulling some sort of cross into the very, very large room that I, along with a bunch of other cells that are completely empty, am in. When the cross is sort of in front of me, she turns it around, revealing Rena, who's strapped to the cross by her wrists, ankles, and torso. I can tell she's lightly breathing, which means she's unconscious. I'm happy that she's not dead, although something inside of me tells me that she will be soon. I hope I'm just being paranoid and that Rena will be fine.

Mion slaps Rena, who immediately— and groggily— wakes up. She blinks a few times before she notices that I'm locked up in a cell. She also sees Mion, who's standing to the left of her with a grin on her face that yells "Psychotic". I can see the fear in her eyes. I bet that's the way my eyes are, too, since I'm really scared about what's going to happen next.

"Hello, Rena-san," Mion says, tilting her head to the side.

"M-Mi-chan," Rena says, her body shaking a little.

Mion slaps her again. "Don't call me that!" Mion snaps. "You're making it sound like we're friends!"

"I-I thought we were friends…" Rena says, eyes widening.

"We _used _to be… but now all you are to me is a pest!" Mion barks, narrowing her eyes. That creepy smile of hers has left her face and has been replaced by a scowl.

"W-Why?" Rena asks.

That's what I want to know. When I first arrived, they seemed like the best of friends… like nothing could tear them apart. But now I know that it _is _possible for them to stop being friends. I can tell that Rena still wants Mion to be her friend, despite what Mion has put her through during the past couple of days, but Mion obviously hates her now for some odd reason. I know that if Rena apologizing for whatever caused Mion to hate her so much won't do any good. Mion's too angry at her for an apology to fix anything. It's going to take a lot more to get her to like Rena again. Although, it's obvious that, no matter what Rena does right now, Mion will never forgive her. Her anger has spread throughout her like a virus.

Wait a minute… Mion has the Hinamizawa Syndrome. That's why she was submitted into the hospital. How'd she get out? I'm positive that Dr. Irie would've been keeping an eye out for her, which means there's no way Mion would've been able to escape without him knowing. Unless… she killed him, just so she could get out of the Irie Clinic and get revenge on Rena.

"Mi-chan!" I yell without thinking. "Where's Dr. Irie?"

Mion shrugs. "Hell if I know," she replies. She faces Rena, who's shaking even more than before.

"Rena-san, do you know why you're here?"

I wish I could ask her where "here" is, but I lost my voice again. I'm surprised I was even able to ask her where Dr. Irie was.

Rena slowly shakes her head. Mion slaps her again, causing her to let out a small screech. "Liar! You _do _know why!"

Rena starts tearing up. "M-Mi-ch—"

She's slapped again. "I _told _you _not _to call me Mi-chan!" Mion screams. Tears stream down Rena's face. I can see the path-lines of the old tears as new tears fall down her face. She lowers her head. Some of her tears fall to the cold, hard ground, making very small puddles.

"M-Mion-san…" Rena says. "I-I truly don't know why I'm here…" More tears start to fall. It's as if there's no end to her tears. I've never seen anyone cry as much as she is right now. The only time I've seen someone actually cry is back in Ibaraki when some boy in my class accidently fell down outside and scraped up his knee very badly. I swear there was a small puddle of blood underneath where his leg was whenever he was picked up and brought to the nurse's office. His knee was sort of a scary sight. This one kid, who gets scared easily, threw up from seeing the other boy's scraped-up knee. The day after that had happened, the boy came back to school with his knee bandaged up, saying he's fine now and that no one needs to worry anymore. He also apologized to the one kid for accidently making him throw up. I thought that was sweet of him to do, since it was obviously not his fault that the kid saw his knee and threw up. It's just that the boy was very nice. He sometimes talked to me. He told me he knew the way I felt, because he had a younger sister who acted just like me, all shy and too scared to do much.

"You're here because you kept trying to steal Kei-chan away from me by turning him against me!" Mion yells, breaking me out of my thoughts. "You knew I liked him, but you were so selfish about wanting him for yourself that you kept trying to get Kei-chan to hate me!"

Rena gasps. "W-What? I'd never do that! I don't like Kei-chan in that way!"

Mion grabs Rena by her hair and pulls her forward a little, "Liar! You're just saying that so you'll seem like the innocent one!"

"M-Mi—" All of a sudden, a knife pierces Rena between her collar bone and her shoulder, causing some blood to spurt out like a water fountain. Rena's scream echoes throughout the place we're in.

Mion stabs Rena in the left arm. Tearstains begin to be covered by newer tears. Although, this time, these aren't tears of sadness, but of agony. Mion stabs Rena's left arm a little more before moving onto her right arm, which she cuts open with one swift movement. I close my eyes to block out the image of Rena's torture, but, even if I cover my ears, I can still hear her excruciating cries of pain. Mion makes a small cut on Rena's right cheek, a slightly-bigger cut on the left side of her face, near her forehead, and a large opening across her face.

"Aya-chan, if you don't watch, I'll torture you next!" Mion snaps, prompting me to open my eyes. I knew this was going to be a bad show. All I can do now, though, is endure the pain of watching Rena being tortured.

Mion stabs Rena in the stomach, causing some blood to spurt out of Rena's mouth. Then Mion stabs Rena's left eye. That was a very hard thing for me to watch. Mion takes the knife, which is still inside Rena's eye, and twists it around, causing the wound to get wider. Rena's wails are now unbearable to hear. I keep reminding myself that Rena's going through a much, much bigger pain than I am from listening to her agonizing screams.

Mion repeatedly stabs Rena in the same eye. Rena cries out each time the knife enters her wound. I wish she'd just die already. Not because I don't like her or anything, but because I want her pain to end. She doesn't deserve any of the suffering she's going through right now. If I was her at the moment, I'd be pleading for death. I bet anybody would want to die if they were in her place. Finally, Mion ended Rena's life by stabbing her straight in the chest, causing all of the screams to suddenly cease. Rena's lifeless body hung limp in the cross's restraints. I hope she's in a better place now. She deserves to be happy, especially after all of this.

I wonder what Mion's going to do to me. I know there's no way she'll let me go after what I just saw. She knows I'd immediately tell someone about her murdering Rena. I guess she's just going to kill me now. Maybe, since I watched her torture Rena, she'll kill me easily. I really don't want to be tortured. Just by watching, I was able to tell how horrid being tortured is. I don't want to be tortured to death like Rena was.

"Now that Rena's dead, I have to go find the others who went against me," Mion says after a couple moments of silence.

"W-What do you mean?" Great, now I'm stuttering just like Rena was before her torture began.

"Rika and Shion… they both went against me… They were on Rena's side… which means that they must die, too!" Mion starts laughing crazily. A chill goes down my spine. Mion opens another set of double-doors and then leaves the giant room that I'm now silently crying in.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: **I warn you: there's a little bit of gore in this chapter, too, although not as much XD

The double-doors that leads out of this dungeon-like place open, revealing Mion, who's now wearing some kind of white robe instead of her free-day outfit like she was before. She's dragging something behind her, but I can't tell what it is. Mion had said that she was going to go after Rika and Shion, even though they truly had nothing to do will all of this stealing-Keiichi nonsense. It's been a day since Rena's torture. I had a bad dream last night. It was about _me_ being tortured by Mion, while Rena was in this cell, being forced to watch as I slowly died. Even though it was a dream, it had felt so real. I remember what happened very clearly. I also remember suddenly waking up right after Mion, in my dream, stabbed me in the neck. I had been sweating like crazy and my heart was beating very fast.

Today is Wednesday, which means that today is a school day for the others, although, right now, it's the afternoon. I hope Satoko and Rika walked home together like they usually, maybe always, do. Mion never said anything about killing Satoko, which means that it's possible she might not try to kidnap Rika while Satoko's nearby. Shion walks home with Keiichi, and I k_now _Mion wouldn't try to kidnap Shion while he's close by. Maybe I don't have anything to worry about. Satoko and Rika share a house together. Shion has a bodyguard. Because Rika and Shion will have someone with them for most of the time, Mion wouldn't have much of a chance to kidnap them.

"Hey, Aya-chan!" Mion exclaims in a singsong voice. She walks over to my cell and kneels down in front of it. Now I can tell that she's carrying a large, black trash bag behind her. It looks smaller than Rika, which means that Rika would most likely not be in there.

"I have a surprise for you," Mion says, smirking. She opens the trash bag and puts her hand inside. She pulls out a bunch of strands of blue hair… Rika has blue hair.

"No…" I whisper. I can't believe. How'd Mion kidnap Rika without Satoko noticing? Satoko has a keen sense of sight and sound. She can detect someone or something that most people wouldn't be able to notice. There's no way she didn't see Rika being kidnapped. They're always together.

Mion lets out a laugh. "Yes…" she whispers back to me. She stands back up and drags the trash bag over to the cross that's still in the middle of the room. Last night, Mion had taken Rena's body and had thrown it down some well that's hidden behind one of the other cells. The cross is covered in Rena's dried up blood, because Mion never cleaned up the mess she made. I'm glad that the blood is dry now, because I had hated the sound of Rena's blood dripping onto the floor. I actually internally cheered when Mion took away Rena's corpse. I hated the sight of Rena's dead body. Right before she died, her right eye was open. That's why her eye was open even _after_ she was dead. It was very creepy. I never wanted to see her corpse ever again. I had seen the despair and the sorrow inside the one eye she still had left. Her eyes were blue. Looking into her depressing blue eye was like looking into a sea of misery. I remember how her eyes were such a bright and happy blue. But then, during and after her torture, her eyes had become clouded over. It was a heartbreaking sight to look at, because it was as if the _real _Rena was replaced with a gloomy one.

"Rika-chan, wake up," I hear Mion say. I look over to where she is and see that she has already strapped Rika onto the cross. I bet she's going to force me to watch Rika's torture, too. I know Rika's death is going to be more painful to watch than Rena's, because Rika is much younger. I don't think kids deserve to die early, because they have so much to live for than those who're older than them.

I hear a few moans before I hear a sharp gasp. I see Rika, fully awake, eyes wide, looking at Mion with a shocked expression on her face. "Mi-chan!" she exclaims.

Mion smirks. "Did you miss me?" she asks teasingly.

Rika glares at her. I've never seen her mad before. She's usually happy. I remember how Satoko had looked different while she was defending Rika. Her eyes had been full of bravery and seriousness. Satoko's usually mischievous, which is why it had been a shock to see her look so bold. Right now, Rika's sort of the same. Her eyes aren't full of happiness like they are most of the time. Instead, they're full of anger and shock.

"What's going on here, Mi-chan?" Rika asks in a serious tone. I'm a little surprised that she's not scared right now. I thought that someone like her would be frightened.

"I'm going to punish you for going against me," Mion replies bluntly.

Rika lowers her head and chuckles. "I can't believe this… Fate has gotten me again…"

Mion narrows her eyes. She holds up a knife and points it at Rika, who's still looking down at the ground. Mion draws the knife back and then, in one quick swing of her wrist, cuts open Rika's cheek. Rika grimaces in pain.

"Look up or else your torture will last longer," Mion threatens. Rika looks up at her and glowers.

Mion cuts a straight line across Rika's collar bone. Thin lines of blood run down from the cut. Mion slits both of Rika's arms, although, for some reason, Rika doesn't seem to mind. She's just hanging there from the cross, glaring at Mion. Mion takes the knife and stabs the palm of Rika's right hand. Rika lets out a tiny shriek. A smile appears on Mion's face. Mion stabs Rika's other palm, earning another tiny shriek from Rika.

Mion walks away from the cross. She enters the room that the cross had come from. She returns with two very long nails and a hammer. She uses one of her hands to hold one of the nails in front of Rika's right shin. She takes the hammer, which is in her other hand, and hits the end of the nail. The nail tears through Rika's skin and into the cross. Blood flows out of the wound and onto the floor. Mion instantly does the same thing to Rika's other shin. Rika cries out in agony. I wince a little when Mion hits the side of Rika's head with the hammer. Mion drops the hammer onto the floor and picks up the knife. She stabs Rika in the stomach, sort of like how she did to Rena, causing Rika to cough up some blood.

Then Mion leaves and goes into the other room. She comes back with a whip in her hand. She lashes it at Rika's face, arms, and legs. Rika's lets out a grimace each time the whip came in contact with her skin. Mion drops the whip and smiles wider. She picks up the knife and repeatedly stabs both of Rika's arms. Rika screams as the knife draws out more of her blood. After Mion's done stabbing Rika's arms, she takes the knife and slits open Rika's throat. Rika's head lolls to the side as the last bit of her life flows out of her. Her now-hollow eyes are open wide and her mouth has a trail of blood running down from it. Her blood has mixed in with Rena's dried up blood.

The sight of Rika makes me feel faint. I hear Mion laughing, but it sounds distant. My vision becomes blurry and then completely dark.

When I wake up, I see something horrid. Lying right in front of my cell is Shion's head. Shion's body, however, is lying in front of the cross. A large pool of blood is underneath both her head and her body. My eyes widen and I let out a scream.


	10. Chapter 10

I've never had a sibling before. I've always been an only child. Although, even though I never had a sister or a brother, I knew about the average between siblings. They love each other, even if they say they don't. No matter what they've done to each other. Usually, it's hard to stay mad at a sibling, even if they had done something unforgivable. Deep down, you'll always love them. Siblings aren't supposed to hate each other. They aren't supposed to kill each other, either. That's why, right now, I'm still trying to process the fact that Mion had killed her own twin sister. The body doesn't look like it had been through any kind of torture, which, to me, is a big relief. It'd be so cruel and malicious of Mion if she had tortured her twin sister. It looks as if Mion had killed Shion right away by decapitating her instead of torturing her until she died. Maybe there's still a part of the old Mion inside of the heartless one that had murdered both Rika and Rena.

I don't know when Mion did this to Shion. I still can't believe it had actually happened. It just seems like one of those things that'd you'd never even think would happen. They act like best friends. Well, they _used _to, anyway.

I'm actually happy I never saw Mion kill Shion. That would've been a very bad sight, too. I already think about both Rika and Rena's deaths. I don't need another death to crawl into my dreams and turn them into nightmares.

"Poor Onee-chan," I hear someone say. I see Mion walk into the giant room, the double doors creaking as they shut behind her. She gives me a devious smile and then heads towards my cell. She sits down in front of my cell and watches me intently as I squirm around a little under her gaze.

"She never even saw it coming…" Mion says quietly, frowning. "All I did was tell her I wanted to show her something cool down here. When we had gotten down here, I quickly chopped off her head with an axe. I didn't have the heart to do anything else."

Didn't have the heart to do anything else? She obviously had the heart to brutally kill both Rika and Rena! Shion may be her twin, but Rika and Rena were her friends. She shouldn't have tortured them. I'm not saying that Shion should've been tortured, too, so it'd be fair. I'm just saying that she should've treated all 3 of them the same way. It's odd that she had the heart to kill two of her best friends, but not her sister. Yes, they're twins, and Mion had a much better relationship with Shion than she did with her friends, but still.

"Why are you telling me this?" I ask Mion, who's looking down as she picks at her nails.

She looks up at me and smiles. "I'm telling you all of this because I _need _to tell someone. I can't keep all of this bottled up inside. Who'd be a better person to tell than someone who's going to die before they even get the chance to tell anyone else?"

A chill runs down my back. I already knew she wasn't going to let me out of here alive, since I had witnessed her murder both Rika and Rena. But to actually hear her tell she that she'll kill me soon frightens me. I don't want to die. Not now, especially since I still have a long life ahead of me.

"Don't you think people will get suspicious if you end up being the only one of the group left alive?" I ask.

"Satoko and Keiichi are still alive," Mion says bluntly.

That's right! Mion never said that Satoko had gone against her. Only Rika, Rena, and Shion! That means Satoko will be able to live her life! Although, she'll be living it side by side with the person who murdered her best friends. Also, if Mion ever starts to think she's trying to steal Keiichi away from her, she'll be killed, too. Hopefully, Mion doesn't ever start of think of Satoko's traps as flirting, or else…

"Ah, yes, dear Satoko…" Mion says, smiling. "She's still alive. I'm not going to kill her. If I do, Keiichi, along with a bunch of other people, will get suspicious."

Yes, that's true. If Mion and Keiichi end up being the only ones left alive, then they might end up as the main suspects, especially if the police find out about both of Mion's outbursts in class. Mion knows this, too, which is why she's keeping Satoko alive, like she just said.

I'm still confused, though. Why'd she capture me? I had nothing to do with all of this Keiichi-stealing business. If she had never captured, people would get even less suspicious of her, since Satoko, Keiichi, _and _I would still be alive. The more people still alive means the more people who could be a suspect, which means that Mion would have an equal chance at being convicted as the rest of us would. But, since only Satoko and Keiichi, along with Mion herself, are alive, Mion has more of a chance at being convicted.

You see, If the police find out about how Rika and Rena have been killed, along with the fact that Mion had attacked both of them, they'd most likely think that Mion could be the killer. Also, because Satoko's alive, more proof that Mion could be the killer could be discovered, since Mion was never angered by Satoko, which would explain why Satoko's still alive, unlike Rika and Rena, who had both made Mion furious.

"Why am I here?" I ask.

"Well, I wasn't planning on kidnapping you, too, but, because you were there with Rena, I decided to just take you, too," Mion replies. She smiles. "It's a good thing I did, though. If I hadn't of done so, no one else besides me would've been able to watch the two glorious shows of torture I had put on!"

"Why didn't you wait a couple more days to kidnap Rena?" Oh gosh, I sound like I _wanted _Rena to be kidnapped. What's wrong with me? Is being locked up in this stupid cell causing me to become insane or something like that?

"My anger was furious that day. I had been so infuriated that I couldn't wait," Mion says, smiling evilly. She gets up and starts walking away.

"It's Kei-chan Time…. It's Kei-chan Time… It's Kei-chan Time…" she chants as she heads towards the double doors. She opens the doors and then leaves the room. The doors, like when she first arrived, creak as they come together again. After a few moments, I lie down and close my eyes. I want all of this to be over. I don't want to live in a world where some of my friends have been killed. There's no point in living anymore. I wish I'd just die in this cell. I want to die from something other than Shion's torture tools.

As I start to drift off to sleep, I wish everyone the best of luck, whether they're still alive or not.

**A/N: **No, this is NOT the end XD


	11. Chapter 11

"Aya-chan..." Mion coos as she lightly touches my cheek. I really want to bite her finger off right now. She killed Rika, Rena, and Shion. She doesn't deserve to live anymore. I can't believe she hasn't been caught yet. There are so many clues that lead to her being the killer. I guess the policemen are just too stupid to piece all of the evidence together.

"You ready?" Mion asks me. I glare at her. I hate her so much. I wish I could kill her, but I can't, because I'm tied up to a cross. The exact same cross both Rika and Rena had been tortured and killed on.

Rena suddenly appears in front of me with a knife in her hand. She stabs me in the chest with it. But, even so, I don't die. Then Rika appears, taking Rena's place, and slits my throat open. But I'm still alive, even while a lot of blood is flowing out of both of my wounds. Shion's now standing in front of me. Although, instead of having a knife in her hand, she has an axe. She swings the axe at me and chops off my head.

I wake up screaming. For a second, I don't recognize where I am. But then everything comes rushing back to me, and I suddenly remember. As I sit upwards, I close my eyes and sigh in relief. That dream had seemed so real, even though Rika, Rena, and Shion are dead.

Yes, they're dead. There's no way to bring them back. They'll never be able to come back alive. Just thinking about that makes my eyes to water. I wish they could be resurrected, though. That'd make me very happy.

I lean backwards into a lying position, but accidentally hit my head on a rock. I rub my head and sit back up. I turn around and look at the medium-sized rock, which is gray with a little bit of black specs on it.

Then I get an idea. If I want to get out of here, I need to first get out of these handcuffs. I start hitting the rock with the chain that connects the two cuffs. It makes a loud noise but I don't care. All I care about right now is getting out of here. I repeatedly strike the rock with the chain, until, finally, the chain breaks in half. I pick up the rock and heave it at the cell's bars, but it only dents them a little. I do that over and over until the cell's bars break. With app my strength, I pry two of the bars away from each other to make an opening big enough for me to fit through. Once I'm on the outside of the cell, I run towards the double doors. I open them and head outside, quietly shutting the doors behind me, so they don't creak, because I don't want anyone to hear me existing. Although, I doubt that'd even be possible, since no one ever heard any of Rika's or Rena's screams from when they were being tortured.

I quickly run down the street and towards the pathway that leads to the Furude Shrine. When I get there, I pound against the door and then wait for someone to answer. No one does, even after I pound against the door a second time, so I head towards Keiichi's house.

I knock on Keiichi's door, hoping someone will be there. When the door opens, I see Keiichi, who looks very tired. His hair's a mess and his clothes are all wrinkly. He seems like he can barely keep his eyes open.

"Kei-chan!" I exclaim.

His eyes widen. "A-Aya-chan, you're alive!"

I nod my head and smile. "I need to tell you and Satoko-chan something really important," I say.

"What about Mion-san?" he asks.

I shake my head really fast. "No, she's who I need to tell you guys about! Where's Satoko-chan?"

"Ever since Rika went missing, Satoko-chan has been staying at my house," Keiichi replies.

I match past him and into his house. I instantly see Satoko curled up on the couch, sleeping soundly. She looks so cute and innocent while she's sleeping.

I lightly shake her. "Satoko-chan... Satoko-chan..." I repeat until her eyes slowly flutter open.

She moans a little and then sits upwards. She rubs one of her eyes with a balled-up fist and yawns. "What time is it?" she sleepily asks. I guess she's still so tired that she doesn't exactly realize who I am.

"It's me, Aya-chan. It's past midnight right now," I reply.

"Aya-chan...?" she says. Her eyes open wide. "Aya-chan!" She wraps her arms tightly around my neck. "We thought you were dead!" she exclaims.

I hug her tightly and frown. "There's something I need to tell you guys…" I say bluntly.

Keiichi sits down on the couch next to Satoko and I. I explain to them about how Rena and I had found the hand at the dump. I went on, saying how I had passed out and had woken up in a cell. I tell them about Rena's torture and death, which causes Keiichi to start tearing up. When I mention Rika's torture and death, Satoko bursts out crying. Keiichi puts his arm around her and she starts sobbing into his shoulder. I go on, saying how Shion was decapitated by Mion, which causes Keiichi to start tearing up even more. Then I tell them about how I escaped. When I'm finally done explaining everything, both Satoko and Keiichi have lots of tears running down their red and puffy faces. That's when I realize that I had been crying, too. I was so busy explaining the story that I never even realized that I was also crying.

"I'm sorry," I mutter after wiping my tears away with the back of my hand. I know it's not actually my fault, but for some reason I feel like I could've prevented everything that had happened, even though I had been trapped in a cell during all of it. Maybe I could've stopped all of this from happening. There are so many scenarios I could've done that could've possible changed everything. For example, maybe, instead of walking into the classroom that day, hoping to help Satoko and Rika set up a trap, and ending up falling into a trap that was intended for Keiichi, I could've prevented everything. You see, if I hadn't of fallen into that trap, Satoko and Rika wouldn't have had to make a new one. If they had never had made a new trap for Keiichi to fall into, Rena and Mion wouldn't of had anything to fight over. Then, possibly, none of the following events could've happened.

There are other scenarios, too, but just thinking about everything I could've done to stop all of this from happening just makes me feel foolish. I had so many chances to change things. But, instead of changing the future like I should've, I just kept missing my chances and let all of the bad things happen.

"It's not your fault," I hear Satoko say.

"Yeah, blaming yourself won't do anything," Keiichi says.

I sigh. I just can't shake off the fact that I could've done something to stop this mess. Without thinking, I say, "The Watanagashi Festival's tomorrow…"

Satoko and Keiichi both nod. I look down and sigh again. "I got to go," I say, standing up. I leave Keiichi's house and head towards mine. While I'm walking, a police car pulls up nearby. Detective Oishi exits the vehicle and walks over to me.

"I'm going to need you to come with me," he says. I nod my head and follow him to his car. Once I'm buckled in, he drives towards the police station. When we get there, he leads me into an interrogation room. As I'm sitting across from him at a table inside, I see, through the giant window, 2 other officers, and my parents, who're crying of joy, since they learned that I'm still alive.

I tell Detective Oishi everything that happened. When I'm done explaining, I notice that I hadn't cried this time. Detective Oishi leaves the interrogation room and tells the 2 other policemen to head to the Sonozaki Manor and arrest Mion. After that, the 2 officers leave. Then Oishi comes back into the interrogation room and sits back down.

First he tells me that the name "Watanagashi" means "intestine drifting". Back then, centuries ago, on the days of the Watanagashi Festival, during the rituals, people used to cast of their sins by sacrificing someone. The miko or priest tortures the person by the torture tools that are hidden away in the Saiguden, a small shed that's behind the Furude Shrine. They'd usually finish off the person by ripping open the person's stomach with a torture tool that looks like a hoe. Then the miko or priest would do a traditional dance.

But, later on, the rituals became too violent to be done anymore. Because the "Wata" in the name "Watanagashi" also means "cotton", the people of the village formed the "Cotton-Drifting Festival". Now, the miko or priest would do a traditional dance and then tear apart some cotton with the hoe. Then the people of the village would take a small piece of cotton and sets it adrift on the river, so their sins and sadness would "drift away".

Apparently, I had been trapped in one of the cells of the Torture Chamber, which is another place the torture was done back then. It's underground, below the Sonozaki Manor, which is why no one was able to hear any screaming. Knowing that the Sonozaki family used to torture people back then makes me feel a little uneasy.

After Oishi finishes explaining everything, I'm able to leave the interrogation room. I go home with my parents, who're so happy that I'm still alive. That night, I easily go to sleep, despite everything I have learned today.

**A/N: **I just want to say that there's only going to be 4 more chapters after this, along with an epilogue XD


	12. Chapter 12

Today's the day of the Watanagashi Festival. Today, we_ the group and I_ were going to participate in all of the festivies and treat them like club activities. But, since most of the group isn't alive, I'm pretty sure we're not going to do that. It's kind of hard to be happy and play games after everything that had happened in the past few days.

This morning, everyone in the village learned about Mion's crimes. I heard that, after learning about it last night, Mion and Shion's mom was so shocked that she had passed out, while their dad was completely speechless. Also, their Grandma, the head of the Sonozaki family, seemed as though she was about to have a heart-attack. I feel really bad for all of them.

As I walk through the village, I receive countless pitiful looks, causing me to feel even more helpless than I had felt before. A lot of the villages give me pats on the back. I hate it when they do that. I know they're just trying to make me feel better, but all they're doing is making me feel very weak.

I head towards the Furude Shrine. I walk up the many stairs that leads to the actual Shrine. As I do, I pass lots of signs that advertise the Watanagashi Festival. I bet the Watanagashi Festival isn't going to be as cheerful this year as it usually is. I remember how Mion had told me the Watanagashi Festival is very fun. There's the activities, the dance that's done by the miko or priest, and then the cotton-drifting ceremony at the end. I don't think they'll have the dance this year, though, since Rika, the miko is dead. The only thing I'll actually be able to look forward to, now, is the cotton-drifting ceremony. Maybe I could be forgiven by Oyashiro-sama for not even trying to help save my friends. I know it's not exactly my fault that they're dead, but I still feel like I should apologize.

When I get to the top of the stairs, I stare at the Furude Shrine, remembering how Detective Oishi had told me about the Saiguden and how there are torture tools inside of it. I cringe at the thought. I walk up to the door of the Shrine and get down onto my knees. I clasp my hands together and bow my head. Then I whisper a prayer to all of my friends. After that, I stand up and head back down the stairs. When I get to the bottom, I run home as fast as I can.

A little later that day, I leave my house and take a walk. While doing so, Detective Oishi's car stops near me. He steps out of his car and into the sun's bright light. The sun shines over the village like it's a happy day. Yes, it _is _the day of the Watanagashi Festival, which is a happy ceremony, but, after everything that had happened, the actual day, not the festival, feels gloomy, which is why I think it should be raining. The rain would represent all of the tears that were cried during the past few days.

"Aya-san…" Oishi says, prompting me to walk over to him. When I get to him, he says, "Mion-san is missing… The cops couldn't find her… It's as if she disappeared…"

It seems like the curse has struck again. I find that odd, since the Takano lady was actually the mastermind behind the curse. If this _is _truly the curse, then someone's going to die. After Detective Oishi's done talking to me, he leaves. I go to Keiichi's house, where I find Satoko and Keiichi watching TV in complete silence. When they see me, they both force a smile, making me feel a little bit uneasy.

"Hello, Aya-chan," Satoko says. Her voice has lost its happiness. Her eyes are hollow. She looks so broken and sorrowful. It makes it hard to look at her. You can easily tell that she really misses those who died. I bet she misses Rika the most, though, since they were best friends. I also think she's mourning the loss of Shion, who she had a sisterly relationship with.

"How are you doing?" Keiichi asks me, looking at me with that fake smile of his.

"Fine, I guess," I say, sitting down next to him. We all sit there in silence, watching the TV. After about an hour of watching TV, the doorbell rings. I stand up and walk over to the door. I open it and look up at the face of the person who rang the doorbell. It's Mion.

"Hey, Aya-chan…" she says, giving me a creepy lopsided smile. As I'm backing away in fear, she grabs my wrist and pulls me to her. She takes a knife out of her pants pocket and waves it in front of my face. I let out a scream as she gets ready to stab me with it. But, before she can, Keiichi pulls me away from her and into his arms.

"Mion-san…" he says quietly.

"Kei-chan!" she exclaims, her eye widening in shock.

"You've killed many of our friends, and now you're trying to kill another one!" Keiichi yells at her, tears brimming his eyes.

"I-I-I—"

"Everyone already knows what you've done, Mion-san, so there's no point in killing Aya-chan!" he yells.

Mion looks down. I see a few tears hit the floor. She looks up and wipes a few tears away. She tightens her grip on the knife. "It's her fault for telling, though!" she yells before running towards me and Keiichi. I hear a piercing scream. I'm not sure if it's mine or not. All I know right now is that I'm falling. I'm falling onto the ground, while Mion and Keiichi are still standing. Then, a second later, Mion's on the ground next to me. There front of her shirt is soaked with some blood. Her eyes are wide and her mouth is slightly open. That's the last thing I see before I pass out.

When I wake up, I see that I'm in the clinic. Next to me are Satoko, Keiichi, and my parents. After we all exchange a few words with each other, Detective Oishi enters the room. The others leave while Detective Oishi gets comfortable in a chair that's next to the bed I'm lying in. He tells me that Keiichi had somehow, while Mion was attacking, stabbed Mion in the chest. Apparently, that was after Mion had stabbed me in the stomach. He also tells me that Mion has been arrested and is currently in the clinic, being sedated. After that, he bows his head and then leaves the room.

It's light outside, which means that it's, most likely, still the day of the Watanagashi Festival. I look at the alarm clock that's sitting on the bedside table that's next to me. It says it's 2 in the afternoon. I've been here for about 4 hours already.

A half-hour later, I'm released from the clinic. I go home and have some lunch, since I haven't had any yet. After that, I got upstairs to my room and watch the small TV that's in my room. I wonder what's going to happen today during this year's Watanagashi Festival. Since Mion turned out to still be alive, it's still possible that there won't be a curse this year. But who knows? This world works in strange ways, which means that _anything_ can happen.


	13. Chapter 13

"Do you still want to go?" my mom asks me. She's still a bit shaken up after all of the past events. I guess I'd be a little scared for my child, too, if this had happened to them. I agree that the Watanagashi Festival isn't going to be as fun as I was thinking it'd be when I first heard about it from Mion, but I still want to go. Maybe something good will happen, even though the past few days have been very tragic.

"Of course," I reply bluntly before heading out of the house. As I run towards the village, where I'll meet up with Satoko and Keiichi, I think about what kinds of festivies will be there. Mion had once told me that there are all kinds of fun games there. Maybe playing some of the games will help take my mind off of all that has happened.

When I get to the Furude Shrine, where a part of the Watanagashi Festival is being held, I, like before, receive looks of pity. I wish I could tell them to stop it and that I'm fine, but I know that'd be a rude thing to do, so I just keep my mouth shut while I walk over to the place Satoko and Keiichi are going to meet me. After about 10 minutes of waiting for them, I decide to just head over to Keiichi's house to see if he and Satoko are okay are not, since they're not here yet.

I make it to Keiichi's house in about 5 minutes. I knock on his door, but no one answers. I knock again. When no one answers, I check to see if anyone's home or not by looking through the window. From what I can see, all of the lights are off. Maybe they had left before I got here. Just as I was about to leave, something from inside catches my eye. I had seen something move. I look harder into the darkness to try and see what's going on inside. I make out the outline of an object that looks like it's floating in midair.

I run to the front door and see if it's locked or not. It's unlocked. I push the door open and immediately turn on the lights. In the living room is Satoko, dangling from the ceiling fan by a rope that must've been tied into a noose. Her eyes are closed and there's a little bit of saliva at the corner of her mouth. Her body lightly moves from side to side. Underneath her is a small stool that's lying on its side. On the rectangular coffee table that's next to it is a note.

I slowly walk towards the table and pick up the note. All it says on it is "Rika". I instantly know what it means. Satoko had killed herself because Rika's not alive anymore. I guess she thought that life wasn't worth living anymore, because Rika, Rena, and Shion are all dead. I just find it so surprising that someone her age would be able to commit suicide so easily.

I uneasily reach my hand out and touch Satoko's wrist. There's no pulse. She's not alive anymore. I feel hot tears slide down my face as I walk towards the phone. I pick it up and dial the police station's number.

"Hello," I hear a man say.

"Hi. This is Aya Catina. May I speak to Detective Oishi?" I know he said that he's a _retired _detective, but I'm pretty sure he still hangs out around the police station, since he still, in a way, works with the police when it comes to investigations.

"One minute," the man says. Yes, I was right. Detective Oishi's there. I'm surprised he hasn't left yet to go to the Watanagashi Festival.

I hear a shuffling noise before I hear Detective Oishi's voice. "This is Detective Oishi speaking."

I tell him everything about Satoko's suicide. I tell him about me coming to the house to check up on her and Keiichi, the door being unlocked, finding Satoko's dangling body, checking for a pulse but not being able to find any, and note. I also, of course, tell him about the note's meaning.

After I'm done explaining, the line is silent for a moment. Then I hear Detective Oishi say, "It appears the curse has struck again."

"But doesn't the curse also involve someone disappearing?" I ask.

"Yeah," Detective Oishi says. "Listen, Aya-san, I know you've already been through a lot, but you need to know something."

"What is it?" I ask, my voice trembling a little.

"Keiichi Maebara has disappeared," he says slowly.

No… This can't be right… All of my friends can't be gone…

But they are. They're all gone. The only one I have now is Mion, but she's a dangerous psychopath. How did all of this come to be? Why did all of my friends have to go? Keiichi didn't deserve to disappear. Satoko and Shion didn't deserve to die. Rika and Rena didn't deserve to be brutally tortured and then killed. So why did all of this happen?

Everything's backwards. Mion, the bad one, didn't die, while all of the good ones did. Satoko never did anything bad to her friends, unless you count her traps, although they weren't made to hurt anyone, which is why that doesn't count as something bad. Rika never did anything bad to her friends, either. She was usually a happy girl. She may have had a tragic past, like Satoko, but, even so, you'd often see her with a smile on her face. Although, I remember how, during her torture, she showed a different side to her, talking about fate and, at first, not showing many signs of being in pain. I don't understand what she meant by being beaten by fate again, and I remember how surprising it was for her to not cry during the first part of her torture.

Then there's Rena. She may be a little weird, being obsessed with cute things, but she always seemed like the kind of person that wouldn't hurt anyone. Mion was kind of the same. Yes, she enjoyed "punishing" people by forcing them wear funny and ridiculous outfits if they lose a game, and then making them wear it around town. But, until that day she fought with Rena, she had seemed like she wouldn't harm someone, especially not her friends.

Shion was kind and trustworthy. She cared for all of her friends, especially Satoko. She hung out with Satoko and Rika a lot, sometimes eating dinner with them at night and inviting them to her and Mion's house to play games. She enjoyed making fun of Keiichi, teasing him about perverted things, including things about him and Mion, which would always make him blush a deep red. She'd never be rude to others.

Now I know that the Watanagashi Festival isn't going to be fun, since all of my friends are gone now. I hang up the phone without saying goodbye and then head outside. As I walk down the path that leads to the village, I see a police car pull up to the house. I had left the front door unlocked so the officers will be able to get inside the house.

I break out into a run and change routes. I run into the woods lean up against a tree. I don't know what to do with my life anymore. I know there are other people at school that are in my grade, but none of them will be able to replace the others. All I want is for my friends to come back. I want to have someone to laugh and play with. I don't want to live here all alone.

I walk forwards. I don't know where I'm going. It's as if my feet grew minds of their own and are forcing me to go where they want to be. I just keep heading in the direction they take me until I feel the ground vanish from underneath me. The next thing I know, I'm underwater, being dragged to the ground. I can easily tell I'm in the river. I lift my head above the surface and breathe in a gulp of air before I'm forced to go back underwater. My body crashes into the side, causing my head to hit some rocks. As I look around underwater, I see some blood flowing by me. I already know it's mine. Those rocks must've been jagged. I slowly reach up and touch my head. I move my hand around, trying to find the wound. My hang touches a deep gash. As I move my hand across the wound, I feel a sharp pain shoot through my body. After that, I black out.

**A/N: **3 more chapters left! XD


	14. Chapter 14

I open my eyes and see nothing but black. Am I dead? Am I in Heaven? All I remember was running into the forest. I don't know what happened after that. The only thing I can think about right now is that I'm floating in some kind of black space. As far as I can see, there's nothing but blackness surrounding me. I really wish I knew where I was. Maybe then I wouldn't be so scared right now.

Suddenly, a floating crystal appears out of nowhere and hovers over to me. It's in the shape of a stretched-out diamond and has a small, white glow around it. It's probably the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I reach out my hand and lightly touch it. Much to my surprise, a picture of my friends and I shows up on the crystal, like there's a movie projector inside of it. The image changes into a picture of Rena and Mion. I recognize their expressions from the day they had fought each other. The image turns into a clip and begins to show their fight. I feel like I'm watching a sitcom or something like that.

Then the crystal shows Mion lashing out at Rika. When it gets to the point where it shows Satoko and I are helping Rika stand up, the scene changes to Mion torturing Rena. Even though it's horrifying, I watch it. After that, the scene changes to Mion torturing Rika.

When Rika's torturing scene is done, the clip changes to a scene I don't recognize. It shows Satoko sitting on the couch that's in Keiichi's living room. She has a pencil and a piece of paper in her hands. She writes something down on the paper before folding the paper up and setting it down onto the coffee table that's in front of her. Even though the lights are off, I can see Satoko clearly. I watch as she picks up some rope I didn't notice before and ties the end into a noose. I already know what's going to happen next, even though this is the first time I've actually seen this. This is where Satoko kills herself…

Standing up on a small stool, Satoko ties the other end of the rope to the ceiling fan. After she's done tying the rope, she puts her head inside the noose and kicks the stool out from underneath herself. My eyes widen as I hear her breathing become ragged, all the way to the point where she's not breathing at all anymore.

I wipe away some tears as a new scene comes on. This time it shows only me. I'm running into the woods. As I watch the clip, bits of memories rush back to me. This had been after I had found Satoko's dead body. I watch as the me in the clip trips on something and falls into the river that was nearby. Then I watch my other self hit my head on some jagged rocks. I'm able to see the large gash that's on the side of my head. To me, it's a shocking thing to look at. I touch the side of my head, but I don't feel anything like my other self does in the clip. My other self, after finding and touching the wound, passes out. After that, she drowns.

Now I remember everything. I'm both happy and upset that I do, though. I'm happy because I now know what had led up to me being in this strange place. But I'm also upset because, in a way, I had to relive all of the bad things that had happened in order to know. I hated having to re-watch all of those horrid scenes. I know I could've just looked away, but, for some reason, I couldn't take my eyes off the crystal. It's as if I was being forced to watch all of those unpleasant events.

"Do you wish that you could change what had happened?"

I gasp and turn around. I'm met face to face with a girl that's about my age. She has lavender hair that cascades down her back. Also, she's wearing a miko outfit that's similar to the one Rika was wearing in this one picture of her that was taken during last year's Watanagashi Festival, except that the sleeves are a light pink and aren't attached to the white robe-like shirt. On the front of her red pants is a medium-sized red bow. She'd look like a regular girl if she didn't have those horns that are on the sides of her head. I notice that the left horn is slightly chipped in the middle.

"W-Who're you?" I ask. She doesn't seem dangerous, but you never know. People's personalities can't always be based on their appearance.

"I'm Hanyuu Furude," she replies, smiling. Hanyuu Furude… She has the same family name as Rika.

"Hanyuu _Furude_?" I repeat.

She nods. "Yep! I'm a distant relative of Rika! I'm also what people call, 'Oyashiro-sama'!" she says cheerfully.

Wait a minute, this girl… this _young girl_… is the great and powerful god, Oyashiro-sama. I always thought that Oyashiro-sama was a male, not a female. I never even thought that Oyashiro was _young_, for that matter.

"You see, Aya-chan," she says in a serious tone, "I'm the god of the village. Centuries ago, when I was still human, I chose to sacrifice myself at the hands of my daughter, Oka, during the Watanagashi Festival to cleanse people of their sins."

She begins to tell me how, after she died, she had turned into a walking spirit that couldn't be seen by anyone, except for Rika, who was born centuries later. She explains to me how she and Rika had gone through so many different worlds.

In one of them, Keiichi kills Rena and Mion because he was thinking they were trying to kill him. In another one, Satoko's being abused by her uncle, Teppei, who, along with her aunt, Tamae, used to abuse her and Satoshi, her older brother, in the past. There's one where Rena goes crazy and takes the whole school as hostage, along with one where Shion disguises herself as Mion and starts killing the people she thought were responsible for the death of Satoshi, who she's in love with. There are other ones, too, though. One of them is where Satoko is saved from her uncle. In that one, the group comes so close to defeating "Fate", the thing that kept them from getting past Showa 58, but they all end up dying again.

The last world Rika and Hanyuu had to go through was the one where they actually defeated Fate. Hanyuu tells me that she took on a physical form in that world and that she helped Rika and the others defeat Fate. Although, after they defeated Fate, she disappeared from the world, because her powers had become too weak for her to stay in her physical form any longer. Apparently, when she vansished from the world, she also vanished from everybody's, except for Rika's, memory. That's why no one remembers her anymore.

"I'm so sorry, Hanyuu," I say. "I ruined your all's perfect world."

Hanyuu shakes her head. "No, it's not your fault."

I turn my head away. "But if I hadn't of come here—"

"Listen to me, Aya-chan," Hanyuu says. "You still have a chance to make things right."

I look up and meet her eyes. "I do?"

"Yes! I can send you back in time, right before the fight between Rena and Mion started. All you have to do is keep them from getting into an argument," she says, flashing me a grin.

I can't believe it. My wish came true. I actually have a chance to fix things. "Really?" I ask, excitedly. My happiness is building up inside of me. I feel like I'm about to explode out of joy. I can't believe this is really happening.

Hanyuu puts her hand on top of the crystal, which had been floating beside us the whole time. I put my hand on top of hers. The glow around the crystal becomes brighter. It grows larger and then swallows both of us up. Then everything around us disappears.


	15. Chapter 15

Satoko and Rika are at their desks, coloring pictures. Shion's at her desk, looking as bored as ever. Rena, Mion, and Keiichi are deep in a conversation with each other. I sit down next to Keiichi, who chuckles a little.

I remember all of this already. I know what I need to do. I need to keep Rena and Mion from fighting each other.

"I heard that you had fallen for a trap that was meant for me," he says. Rena giggles a little into the palm of her hand while Mion just smirks.

"Yeah, but it's okay," I reply. I have to respond the same as I did before. I'm surprised I even remember what I had said in the other version of this world.

"Kei-chan, you shouldn't be so mean to Aya-chan, especially since you also had a trap pulled on you," Mion says. She lets out a laugh as Keiichi grumbles to himself.

"Yeah, apparently, since you had taken the blow from that one trap that was meant for Kei-kun, Satoko and Rika quickly set up another one," Rena tells me.

Oh no, it's coming. I don't exactly know how I'm going to stop them from fighting. I just got here. I have to think of something fast. I don't know if Hanyuu will be able to go back in time again if I mess up. I know she had done it more than a hundred times before in the past, but that doesn't mean she'll definitely be able to do it now. She had said that the reason she wasn't able to maintain her psychical form because her powers were weakening. Even though that was in the past, it's possible her powers still aren't _completely _healed.

"That's right. When he entered the classroom, he tripped on a thin wire and fell forwards, with his face landing in a small container of spoiled milk. It had made my day..." Mion says.

I jump into the conversation as fast as I can. "I wish I could've seen it!" I exclaim a bit too loudly. A couple faces turn my way, causing me to blush. I may have matured a little more in the bad version of this world, but that doesn't mean I'm not shy anymore.

"Yeah, it was a little funny," Rena says. Yes, she said something different than what she had said in the other world. That must mean something.

"To me, it was _very _funny," Mion says, leaning back in her chair with her arms crossed in front of her chest. She flashes a big grin. I had missed that grin so much in the other world. I remember how, during the time she was crazy, her smile was very creepy. It had been so creepy that it had sometimes made chills run down my back.

I have to say something else now. There's still a chance that a fight can break out. If Rena says that she doesn't think it was very funny like Mion does, Mion could get mad. I honestly don't know what's so bad about having a different opinion about this Keiichi-being-tricked thing. Maybe she's not getting mad _because_ Rena thinks it wasn't funny, but for _why _she thinks Rena doesn't think it's funny. I remember her telling Rena that the only reason she didn't think it was funny was because she liked Keiichi. It's possible it's true, but it's also possible that it's not. Mion only _thinks _that Rena likes Keiichi. Although, in the other world, Rena had said that she didn't have feelings for Keiichi, which Mion had said was a lie. That must be the real reason why Mion had gotten mad at Rena.

"Rena, I'm sure you thought it was _more_ than just a _little _funny," I comment.

Rena looks down and twirls some strands of her hair. "Yeah…" she says quietly.

"What's wrong with thinking it was funny?" I ask.

Rena looks up and starts stuttering. I'm pretty sure the reason she doesn't want Keiichi to know that she thinks him getting tricked was funny because she truly does have feelings for him. I also think that she said she had told Mion that she didn't like him, because she knew Mion also liked him, and she didn't want to make Mion even angrier by admitting her feelings for him. Anyway, I guess she thinks that he wouldn't like her if he knew that she thought him being tricked was funny. But I don't think she should worry about that. Keiichi's not the kind of guy that gets mad when someone thinks him getting tricked is funny. I bet that he thinks it's funny himself.

"Oh, is it because you don't want people to know you like pranks?" I ask, covering for her. Mion could possibly get mad if she finds out that Rena likes Keiichi, too.

"T-That's not it!" Rena exclaims.

Mion laughs. "I'm guessing you don't want people to know that because you think you'll be pranked yourself if anyone found out, am I right?"

"Yeah, you're right," I say, smiling. If Rena keeps objecting this, then Mion will start thinking for other reasons why Rena wouldn't want Keiichi to know about her thinking him being the victim of a prank is funny. I can't let that happen, or else she might get mad.

"I knew it!" Mion exclaims.

We make it through the whole day without any fights. I quietly say tell Hanyuu thank you. She had said that she's sometimes by Rika, the only person who can see her while she's in her spirit form, which makes me believe that she'll get my message.

As we all walk home from school together, talking about our day, I think about how much better life will be from now on. I know everything's going to be fine now. But, just in case, if someone else becomes infected with the Hinamizawa Syndrome like Mion was, I'll be sure to be ready this time. I'm going to try my best to keep everything calm and peaceful instead of letting it turn dark and sinister.

With my friends by my side, I'll make sure this world stays perfect, no matter what happens.

**A/N: **Boohoo! This was the last chapter! All that's left now is the epilogue!

Oh well, at least I'll be able to post more stories (if I can think of some good ideas). Speaking of new stories, on my profile, I have some ideas for stories that I'm thinking about. If you want to, you can tell me what you think of them. But you _have _to be honest. If you love them, tell me. If you hate them, tell me. They're only ideas, which is why I won't mind if you don't think they're good, okay? Also, on my profile, is some info about how I'm going to be posting a picture of a scene from each of the chapters of the story on DeviantART, along with a bunch of other Higurashi pictures that I've drawn that have nothing to do with Higurashi: Chi. Anyway, see ya! XD


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: **Trust me when I say that this epilogue is going to be very short XD

It's the night of the Watanagashi Festival. Everyone_ including me_ is happy. We played lots of games, had contests, and had watched Rika's shrine maiden dance. Right now, we're setting our cotton balls into the river. Something unexpected happened, though. Before we had set our cotton into the river, Keiichi had asked Mion out. She had said yes and they had decided to set adrift their balls of cotton together. To me, it was a very cute sight to see.

We also had many pictures taken so we'll be able to remember this year's Watanagashi Festival. I had secretly taken a shot of Mion and Keiichi sharing their first kiss. They had noticed me right after the flash had gone off. Satoko, Rika, Rena, Shion, and I all laughed while Mion and Keiichi blushed.

This sure has been a crazy summer.

But, even so, I ended up loving it. Yes, in the alternate world, there was a lot of blood. But everything in this world, which ended up being the true world, was great. Everyone's alive and happy. We're all friends. That's the way I love it.

The only one who knows about the alternate world, along with Hanyuu, is Rika. Whenever I have the need to say something about the other world, I go to her. I've probably told her everything about 5 times already. It's just so hard to keep something like that to myself. This one time, I had gone over to the house Satoko and Rika shares, telling Rika that I, again, was having the need to tell someone about the other world, but she told me she was busy. Although, because she knows about my urge to tell, she had me talk to Hanyuu instead. I ended up enjoying it. It might've looked like I was talking to thin air, but I wasn't. I was talking to Hanyuu, also known as Oyashrio-sama, the guardian of this beautiful, yet strange, village, Hinamizawa.

A/N: Okay, I made it A LITTLE longer than it was before. I know it's still not much, but oh well. I'm just happy that I was able to think of something else to add.

You have to agree it makes sense that the other world would sort of traumatize Aya. I mean, really, she's going to remember that world for, most likely, the rest of her life.

Oh, and by the way, I'd like to say thanks to a special someone...

Michael S. Repton!

I know I don't actually KNOW him, but he's my best reviewer.

Last, I'd like to say how I came up with the name, Aya Catina.

First of all, I thought the name, Aya, was cute, and I like cute things, along with creepy/bloody/gory things (mostly anime and manga stuff).

Second of all, my favorite animal is a cat (CAT-ina). The "-ina" part of the family just sounded like it fit, which is why I had used it.

Okay, I'm done now. See you_ whoever that may be_ in another story! XD


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